


Just Like The Word ‘Forever’, Let’s Stay Together

by jhopesflower



Category: Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Cute, Fluff, Insecurities and Anxiety, M/M, They're just so soft, Very long, mentions of many other members, slight 2hyun, this is gonna be long buckle up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-07
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2018-12-12 05:00:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 39,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11730015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jhopesflower/pseuds/jhopesflower
Summary: Jinyoung and Daehwi's relationship throughout Produce 101.(Title taken from Always, from Produce 101)





	1. Chapter 1

Jinyoung took a deep breath. In about twenty seconds, he was to walk out and greet 100 trainees without falling flat on his face. He had only been training for ten months, some trainees already sitting out there could’ve been training for well over five years, and he was going to have to compete with them. Jinyoung was nervous, to say the least.

The camera man gave Jinyoung the signal to begin walking through the corridor. He already heard a couple of trainees whispering from inside the corridor about his company. It was a small company, so they were probably confused by where it came from. When he calmed down enough to walk through the opening, he was immediately greeted by the site of one hundred and one chairs, organized in a large triangle. Jinyoung stopped in the center, trying to take in the grand site. Once he gathered himself together, he gave a bow. “Hello, I’m C9 Entertainment’s trainee, Bae Jinyoung.”

Jinyoung was too scared to lift his head up at first, feeling everyone’s eyes on him, until he heard all the trainees reply “Hello!” Jinyoung finally lifted his head up with a small smile. He decided to head up the stairs to find an empty chair, not caring for the number. He heard a couple of trainees murmuring to each other while he was walking.

“ _His face is so small!” “He’s so pretty!” “Wow, in order to be an idol, you really need to be pretty, huh?”_ Jinyoung didn’t know how to feel about the comments. Sure, he felt better knowing that they all thought he was attractive, but he couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable. He wanted to be known for his talent, not just his looks. As he walked up, he saw a trainee, clad in a blue sweater and black turtleneck underneath. His hair was gray and poofed out (Jinyoung thought it looked a bit like a mushroom, it was cute). He noticed the gray-haired boy pouting and checking out his looks in the camera, the boy proceeded to turn to his fellow group mates to make sure he looked good. Jinyoung couldn’t help but find the trainee endearing. He noticed on the trainee’s name plate, it said “Lee Daehwi, Brand New Music.” Jinyoung couldn’t help but gasp a little. He didn’t know Brand New Music was sending trainees to the show, but he knew everyone would be looking out for them because of Brand New’s reputation.

He found an empty seat next to some other boys. He made sure to give a wave and a smile before tuning everything out. He was nervous and was too terrified of making conversation with anybody; he just stayed still and paid attention to whatever happened up front.

 

Auditions came and went. Jinyoung was way too nervous during his audition and ended up looking at the floor most of the time. Boa even took the time to point it out, but Jinyoung didn’t have the confidence to even put his head up then. He received a C ranking, but honestly Jinyoung couldn’t complain, he knew he wasn’t good enough for anything higher; he honestly felt he deserved lower. Jinyoung watched as all the other trainees went, some were amazing (Ong Seongwoo’s performance left a deep impression on him, along with the S.How Entertainment trainees), while some were pretty funny (especially the Cube trainees).

The audition that left the deepest impression on Jinyoung was the Brand New Music trainees; he’s pretty sure the other trainees felt the same. They wrote AND choreographed the entire performance, Jinyoung was surprised that the trainees didn’t all receive A rankings. No matter, there were still re-evaluations to get through.

 

Nayana was introduced to all the trainees. It was definitely more inspirational than Pick Me from season one, but it looked even harder. The dance was more complex, and the song’s range was incredibly high. Jinyoung knew he had a deeper, raspier voice, so he was already beginning to lose hope. All the trainees organized themselves by rank, and then danced and sang the song by rank. JInyoung already felt his voice straining to reach the high notes in the song. He also had trouble following along with the dance; the instructors ran through the choreography way too quickly. Jinyoung was amazed that the A rank was even able to pick it up so perfectly, but they were in A afterall, so it made sense.

As practice went on, through vocal and dance classes, Jinyoung felt his already-low confidence deteriorating even more. He was too shy to talk to any of the other trainees so he tried to practice on his own, but being lonely made his morale even lower. During vocal classes, he felt the trainees judging him for being too scared of raising his voice or looking up. He felt that every time the trainer, Yumi, pointed him out, she did it to humiliate him. His voice would grow faint as he felt her stare pierce through him, her clap echoing in his ears. Whenever they ran through the dances, they were way too fast for him to keep up, and he felt too timid to even try and ask the trainer to run through it slower, so he just tried his best.

Besides the classes, he felt incredibly excluded with the other trainees. He wanted to join in on their practices, but he knew he wasn’t close enough with anyone to practice with them, so he stayed in the corner and worked by himself. Jinyoung felt frustrated with his own inability to pick up on the choreography and feel more confident. Back at the company, the teachers always told him that if he were just a little bit more confident, he would be able to handle anything, but he couldn’t bring himself to be more confident. Everyone in his rank was practicing hard, but he felt himself going backwards, unable to move forward. By the time the re-evaluations came around, Jinyoung knew immediately that he had dropped. He knew the trainees around him predicted that he would move down in ranks; he felt pathetic. People he didn’t even know didn’t believe in him, how was he going to be able to believe in himself? The national producers would see him and immediately give up on him, he could feel it. He was a lost cause.

New rankings from the re-evaluations were given out. Jinyoung opened his card and saw the red F glaring at him. He felt himself grow more pathetic. The trainees were to be dismissed by what new rankings they got. Jinyoung could already feel the other trainees judge him. He knew he would be stared at the second he got up to go the F rank room. He saw pink-haired Jinyoung get up to walk to the A class room; he slightly envied pink-haired Jinyoung, but knew he deserved it for the amount of work he put in.

 

Recording for the music video came and went, Jinyoung knew he was on the floor for being in F class. He felt a strange sense of comradery when all the F trainees huddled together to support each other before lining up in their positions. The morale was low but with all of them together, Jinyoung felt happier than he felt in C class. They all bonded together when practicing together, they all helped each other through the day, they all made sure they were taken care of, it was great. Other rankings saw how they would stay on the floor for the performance, so even they tried to help boost their morale, it felt nice to be acknowledged for even trying for once.

 

All the trainees were gathered together to watch the first episode of Produce 101 together. There were some high moments, like the MMO trainees’ commentary, there were also several low moments, like the Pledis trainees discussing what they felt coming back to redebut, to Moonbok’s path to redeeming himself. Throughout all of that, Jinyoung couldn’t help but be wary for when the first rankings came up. He knew he would’ve been lower, coming from a small company and not having much exposure beforehand, besides the videos Mnet filmed for their introduction. To Jinyoung’s surprise, he was 5th place, he couldn’t help but feel down. He was probably only chosen to be this high because of the slight screentime he got during the _Nayana_ recording. He didn’t deserve such a high rank, other trainees were much more talented than he was. Jinyoung felt himself keeping his head lower than it already was.

The time came for the trainees to form groups to perform the group battles. Jinyoung felt like he was in a lineup to be chosen for the kickball team. He knew he would get chosen last, like he always was for kickball as well. He tried to keep his head up, hoping to be chosen before the final group of trainees was just forced to band together. Jinyoung saw Lee Daehwi, their center, was first up to choose trainees for his group. He couldn’t help but feel that this year’s way of choosing trainees was unfair, anybody could choose all A class members to bring their team up with the sheer amount of talent; nevertheless, Jinyoung held his head up to try and be chosen.

Jinyoung’s morale fell as he saw Daehwi choose high level trainees, Sungwoon and Samuel, both from A rankings. Jinyoung’s head fell when he heard Daehwi choose Park Jihoon, the infamous wink boy. Jinyoung began zoning out.

“C9 Entertainment’s trainee, Bae Jinyoung.” Jinyoung looked up quickly. He couldn’t believe his ears. Jinyoung quickly ran down to join the trainees in line. He saw their finished group, Daehwi really did come in with a plan: every single trainee in their group was extremely highly ranked. Jinyoung couldn’t help but feel a little sad, that he was chosen only because his rank just so happened to be high.

Soon, all the groups were made, and they were to choose the song that their group would perform, Sungwoon suggested Boy In Luv by BTS, which was an obvious choice: BTS was extremely popular, so that would, in turn, boost their popularity. Thankfully, Daehwi's focus during the race was at an all-time high, allowing them to get the song that they wanted; the only thing in their way was the group they were up against. They had Lai Guanlin and Kang Dongho, two extremely popular trainees. Daehwi remained confident with their decisions and acted as their happy virus.

As practice went on, Jinyoung felt himself lagging behind the other members. He saw everyone else nailing the choreography instantly because of how popular the song was, while Jinyoung had to start from the beginning, still very new to everything. Daehwi managed to pick up on Jinyoung’s mood and always stayed behind after practices to help Jinyoung out, which Jinyoung was eternally grateful for.

The entire team got very close, working on different ways to make their performance stand out as much as possible. They practiced, ate, washed and slept together, Jinyoung was grateful for all of their positive energy. Daehwi and Euiwoong, as the younger members, made sure to spread their energy throughout the group, Samuel worked on making sure the choreography was perfect, while Jihoon and Sungwoon, as the center and leader, worked on making sure everyone was doing their part. Haknyeon and Jinyoung lagged behind, but everyone made sure to help the two out as often as possible. Jinyoung hoped they would stay close after the first competition. He felt a little more confident in the environment that they were in, it felt really refreshing.


	2. Chapter 2

As time went on, Jinyoung felt as though Daehwi’s smile became more strained. He knew Daehwi felt burdened by the amount of hate comments from the previous episodes. Everyone ranted on how Daehwi’s song was a copy-cat of Got7’s _Hard carry,_ even though he wrote and composed it by himself. People also hated on Daehwi for becoming center of _Nayana_ , feeling as though other trainees could’ve done better than him. People also went to the internet to complain about how Daehwi was an evil schemer, choosing trainees who would make his group too popular. Everything piled onto Daehwi’s back until one night, he cracked.

Jinyoung was looking for an empty practice room so he could work on his singing for the group battle. He was tasked with the infamous high note in _Boy In Luv,_ so he was practicing as often he could to make sure it would be able to come out in tune for the performance. He didn’t want to bring Jihoon down because of his own stupid voice. Bringing Jihoon down would be like a death sentence for Jinyoung, seeing the amount of fans Jihoon had. As he walked past the closed doors, he heard someone crying from inside one of them. Jinyoung peeked into the small window to see who was inside and saw that it was Daehwi, huddled against the wall in the corner, head on his knees, sobbing.

Jinyoung didn’t know if he had the right to go in and try to help him. The entire team may have gotten close, but Jinyoung still couldn’t help but feel a little awkward sometimes, that’s just the kind of person he was. His heart, however, couldn’t handle seeing Daehwi’s normally bright face look so sad, so Jinyoung quickly went in the room and wrapped Daehwi in the least awkward hug he could handle. Daehwi looked up quickly, startled, but relaxed back into his original position when he noticed it was Jinyoung.

“Hey, it’s going to be okay,” Jinyoung said, trying to calm Daehwi down by rubbing his back.

Thankfully, Daehwi didn’t try to run away, instead, choosing to move himself in closer to Jinyoung’s warmth. Jinyoung felt his cheeks flush a little; Daehwi was practically in his lap right now. He’s never been this close to anybody before besides his family, so he couldn’t help but feel a little bashful.

Jinyoung knew Daehwi was talkative, so he tried to get him to talk rather than letting thoughts run through Daehwi’s head forever. “So… what’s been bothering you?”

Daehwi took a deep breath, trying to calm his sniffles down so that he could form coherent sentences without being interrupted by his own nose. “It’s just… everything came crashing down all of a sudden, ya know? I think it was just because I heard someone walking by when they heard me practicing say ‘yah, they’re going to do so well because they have the most popular members. Daehwi really knew how to pick them.’ Which made me start to feel awful and triggered this whole thing. That got me thinking back to all the mean comments about how I was a sneaky, conniving, shameful person for making this group. It also feels like it’s not just the comments and other trainees that are against us, but also the trainers, pointing out how our team was just overhyped and that the other group could totally run us over. I want to prove them all wrong but I can’t because I’m so untalented… a-and ugly and stupid. I just didn’t expect this amount of pressure on this group so I feel like I’m going to let all of you down and drag you guys down too.” Daehwi broke back into tears and started sobbing into Jinyoung’s shirt. Jinyoung could feel Daehwi’s tears soak into his shirt but it didn’t matter.

“Daehwi, look at me,” Jinyoung said, surprised by how stable his voice was.

Daehwi waited for a couple seconds before looking up. Jinyoung’s heart broke looking at the normally-smiling eyes filled with tears and stained red, along with a big frown and stained cheeks on Daehwi.

“You would never let us down, we’ve all been working hard together to make this the most perfect performance. If anybody is going to let the group down, it would be me, because I can’t perfect that stupid high note yet.” Daehwi was about to open his mouth to argue, but Jinyoung continued, while wiping away the tear-tracks from Daehwi’s face. “You’ve helped me and the others so much during the training. I still wouldn’t be able to figure out the choreography right now if you hadn’t helped me back then. Putting all of us in this group has helped us all become close together, and we’re grateful that your smart head figured out how to make sure a great group, so don’t feel sad about putting us together.”

Jinyoung could see tears welling up in Daehwi’s eyes again, but he kept going. “You’re also insanely talented and beautiful. You’ve been in rank A since the beginning and you were the center, that just shows how talented you are and how talented all the trainees think you are, and your smile lights up the entire room; we’ve all noticed that you’ve been having trouble keeping it up because of how big of an impact it leaves on all of us. I don’t want to hear you talk again about all of this self-doubt because you’re basically perfect.” Jinyoung even surprised himself when he let everything out. He immediately flushed thinking back to what he said.

“I-I’m sorry if tha-that made you uncomfortable. I’m s-so awkward, I’m sorry,” Jinyoung quickly stammered out.

Jinyoung felt Daehwi shaking in his arms and immediately became worried. “I’m so sorry, did I make you cry more?! Oh my god, why am I like this,” Jinyoung would’ve kept going, but then he saw Daehwi lift his face up with a huge smile on his face.

“You’re so adorable, hyung! And so nice, you really made my night, and basically this entire week.” Daehwi leaned up to give Jinyoung a peck on the cheek, before standing up and wiping at his face to make sure his sniffles were all gone. “Should we practice together now that we’re here? We could practice that high note of yours.”

Jinyoung prayed that his face wasn’t too noticeably red after the small kiss and stood up as well. “Yes, please, that would be very helpful.”

It was already eleven at night, so after two more hours of practice, Daehwi and Jinyoung decided it was time to sleep. They ended up agreeing to double up on the high note just to make it more noticeable and stable, since Jinyoung’s voice wasn’t strong enough to reach it and make it sound full. The next day, they went into practice and discussed it with Jihoon and everyone else as well, they all agreed that having some extra power for the high note would be possible. They began adding jumps and acrobatics into the choreo, and while they were figuring out more about how to make their performance more unique, Daehwi suggested, “How about I walk out towards the center with Jinyoungie-Hyung right before the chorus??”

Jinyoung couldn’t believe his ears, ‘ _where did this type of suggestion even come from, it’s so random??’_

Sungwoon looked deep in thought, but he didn’t seem to find anything against it. “It sounds fine, you guys can work that out!”

Daehwi clapped with a big, bright smile, and Jinyoung decided right there that it was alright to do the move afterall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ARE YOU AS SHOOK BY THE WANNA ONE DEBUT AS I AM I'M SO PROUD OF THEM  
> As I wrote, I tried to make my story match with the show as much as possible but I get lazy with research sometimes and some things stand out more to me than others, which may lead the story in different directions, so if there are any inaccuracies I'm sorry TT^TT  
> I hope you enjoyed the chapter nonetheless!!  
> Comments and kudos are appreciated <3


	3. Chapter 3

D-Day, Jinyoung saw signs for it everywhere. The dorms and practice rooms all counted down to the day of their first performance; Jinyoung immediately felt the pressure coming from all different directions. They would be performing in front of hundreds of people, judged by all the trainees and mentors, competing against each other for the benefit, and ranked accordingly afterwards by the crowd. Jinyoung couldn’t help but feel the constant need to throw up.

Before everything, there was a run-through between both _Boy In Luv_ groups. Since their group was Team 1, they went up first for their vocal practice. Their practice run through was smooth, after going through it hundreds of times, high note not destroying everyone’s ears for once. The mentors still told them to be careful with the high note, saying that even if it comes out good, it won’t sound the best because of how high it was. Once they were done listening to the mentor’s comments, they saw Dongho take the microphone to talk to them. Jinyoung immediately felt threatened. To be honest, they all felt threatened by Dongho because of his tall and broad stature, most of their group was small and young (besides Sungwoon, who was just small), so they immediately prepared for the worst.

“There’s someone who’s doubling, right?” Dongho asked.

Their group stopped for a bit, before Sungwoon decided to take his leader role and go “Yes, Daehwi is doubling.”

Right after Sungwoon responded, Dongho decided to press again, “why didn’t you discuss with us first?”

Everyone in their group recalled bringing it up during one of their joint rehearsals. Jinyoung distinctly remembered Sungwoon bringing it up at some point, but even as Sungwoon brought it up to Dongho again, he brushed it off as if it was nothing. Just like during the rehearsals, Dongho was turning his attention towards his own team members and focusing on his group.

After watching the second team discuss amongst themselves the situation, and waiting for a tense thirty seconds, Daehwi’s team was let off the hook. They were all afraid that Dongho was going to beat them up, or eat them alive (they were small okay? You can’t blame them for being terrified). They decided to discuss the situation again before the actual performance and agreed that it would be better to just leave their performance without the doubling, feeling guilty that the second team apparently didn’t hear about it.

When their discussion finished, they went off the stage to watch the second group practice. They were extremely strong, their vocals were stable, they definitely looked more manly than their cutesy group, and their dancing was strong; Jinyoung felt more nervous. The mentors made sure to give them a lot of compliments as well. Jinyoung heard Daehwi talk to the camera about how he felt regretful about his team, and how the other team was better than he had expected. It looked like Daehwi was about to fall apart any second, but he remained strong for the camera, Jinyoung knew better though. After they were all done rehearsing, they went back to the break room to relax before the performances. All the couches were taken so their group sat on the ground, at least the carpet was soft. Jihoon plopped himself down next to Jinyoung.

“You looked like you were going to faint in front of Dongho!” Jihoon joked.

Jinyoung let out a laugh while trying to defend himself. “No! What are you talking about?? I kept my cool, I wasn’t scared at all!”

“That’s exactly who someone scared would sound like.” Jihoon responded.

Jinyoung pouted. “Hyuuuung~ I’m brave! ‘I’m not an easy guy’.” Jinyoung said, sending Jihoon a wink, trying to imitate his imfamous pose.

“Don’t be cheesy and quote the song, I’m going to leave and get away from you now,” Jihoon replied, looking disgusted while getting up to look for something to eat in the other room.

Jinyoung was glad he had a friend like Jihoon around, they got around easily, quiet around others but loud with each other. They worked hard on practicing the high note together, spending many late nights wearing out their voices, crying for their families, dreaming of debut together. Jinyoung felt as if he was closer to Jihoon than he was to almost all of his friends back at home.

Jinyoung sat around for a little bit, mind blank, before noticing that Daehwi wasn’t with them. He looked around the room, seeing all of his group members besides Jihoon, because he went to look for food, and Daehwi.

“Hey hyung, have you seen Daehwi?” Jinyoung decided to ask Sungwoon, since he was the oldest and therefore the most trustworthy. Jinyoung’s immature mind still stuck to that rule.

Sungwoon paused for a bit, visibly thinking. “I actually don’t know… maybe he went to the bathroom? Hopefully he’ll be back soon. I’ll go look for him anyways.”

Jinyoung started again, “It’s okay hyung, I’ll go look for him, I brought it up anyways.”

Sungwoon gave Jinyoung a smile. “Okay, come back soon!”

Jinyoung got up and started walking towards the dressing room, where makeup, hair and outfits were being organized. He passed the bathroom, but it didn’t look like anyone was in it. It should’ve been empty, since everyone was already prepped and in the waiting room, but Jinyoung saw a familiar flop of blond hair sitting at a chair in the corner. Jinyoung let out a sigh of relief and started to walk over. As he came closer, he heard sniffling and saw the hair shaking, Jinyoung immediately shuffled over faster to help him out.

“Hey hey, it’s going to be okay Daehwi,” Jinyoung said, as he wrapped Daehwi in a hug. He felt Daehwi stiffen for a second, trying to figure out who it was, before he figured out it was only Jinyoung. Daehwi began crying harder again.

“This is all my fault,” Daehwi choked out between tears. “I should’ve prepared us better or something, the other team is so talented, and we didn’t even realize it until now. When I was choosing this group, all I could think about was making the most perfect and popular group, I guess I was just blinded by the ‘Avengers’ title, when I’ve just made you guys all fall. All of the comments on the last episode call me evil and selfish for bring you guys down with me. If I wasn’t so selfish, you guys could be doing much better things, but now you’re all stuck with me with a fake title and overwhelming amounts of pressure. I’m sorry.” Daehwi would’ve kept going if Jinyoung didn’t tighten his grip around Daehwi’s shoulders and rubbing soothing circles in his hair.

“You seriously need to stop blaming yourself. No one could blame you for choosing this team, it’s a survival show for a reason. Sure the other team might be strong, but we’re strong as well!” Jinyoung pulled away so he could grasp Daehwi’s shoulders and have Daehwi look at him in the eyes so that his message could get through his thick head. “We’ve practiced a ton as well, Sungwoon has been leading us well, and you’ve done so much to make sure our choreography and vocals have been good. I know Dongho must’ve shook you up a little, I’ll admit he scares me too, don’t worry, but we’re going to nail this performance. It’s honestly my fault that you’re this nervous, since I can’t nail the stupid note, which just drags our performance down, but…”

Jinyoung stopped, thinking about how it was genuinely all his fault that he couldn’t nail the note. He should be the one to blame, not Daehwi. Tears immediately welled up in his eyes. “This… this is all my fault. If I had practiced better, we wouldn’t be in this situation right now. Dongho wouldn’t have needed to call us out on doubling and the trainers wouldn’t have said that the second team would beat our team. I’m so sorry, this is all my fault.”

Daehwi’s eyes immediately widened at the crumbling Jinyoung. Jinyoung sank to the ground, holding his head in his hands, unable to look up again; he felt his tears flowing until he felt small, soft hands remove his hands from his face.

Daehwi peered into Jinyoung’s line of site, only to be met with red eyes, still wet with tears. “Jinyoung, this isn’t your fault. You’re going to be fine today, you and Jihoon have practiced a lot, remember that we only agreed on doubling as a safety precaution, and that it was nothing against your skill. You’re going to land that high note no problem, we’re going to nail this performance no problem, okay?”

Once Daehwi finished, he wrapped Jinyoung up in a hug. Jinyoung slowly, but surely, wrapped his arms around Daehwi’s body as well. They stayed like that for a while, until the two of them calmed down. When they finally decided that it was time to leave, they pulled away and just stared at each other. The first thing that Jinyoung realized was how big and sparkling Daehwi’s eyes were, like they were filled with dreams and hopes for the future, starting with their performance. People usually say that brown eyes are boring, but Jinyoung felt like he could get lost in Daehwi’s eyes forever.

After a couple seconds of (border-line uncomfortable) staring, Daehwi cleared his throat to get Jinyoung’s attention and said, “Our makeup needs some touching up, let’s find a makeup-noona to help us out,” with a smile.

Jinyoung gave a smile in return, making Daehwi gasp out loud. “That was the biggest smile you’ve made since being part of this group! I’m glad, smile more Jinyoung! We’ll be fine today!”

Jinyoung immediately flushed, deciding to get up and follow Daehwi to fix up their makeup.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!! Wanna one go episodes keep coming, making this story get a lil more inaccurate TT^TT but I hope yall can overlook it for now! I'm debating on editing my old chapters to match better, I shall think about it.   
> Anyways, thank you guys for the comments!! I'm trying to reply to them all but I'm slow, but don't worry cuz i've definitely seen them all and they're all super nice! :3  
> Have yall seen the live performances for burn it up and energetic tho? i wanna die wanna one is taking over my life


	4. Chapter 4

Their performance had finished. Results came out. Their team won, thankfully, and Daehwi had received a total of 105 votes, while Jinyoung received 66 votes. It was honestly more than Jinyoung could’ve ever imagined, so he was thankful. He was more proud of Daehwi for receiving so many votes. After working so hard, Daehwi’s talent was recognized, and Jinyoung was glad.

As they exited the results room, Jinyoung pulled Daehwi aside before they returned to the waiting room to watch more performances. He really wanted to tell Daehwi about how good a job he did for their team.

“Hyung, what’s up?” Daehwi said, mood a little brighter after doing well.

Jinyoung’s body moved before his words, so he wrapped Daehwi up in a hug. Daehwi let out a squeak, but before Daehwi could say something, Jinyoung whispered, “Great job, I told you that you were going to do fine.”

Daehwi slowly returned the hug, he gave a squeeze to show how much he appreciated the gesture. “Thanks Jinyoung. Honestly I didn’t deserve that many votes, you, Euiwoong and Sungwoon should’ve gotten more votes.” Daehwi let out a hollow laugh. “I feel really bad for stealing all the votes from you guys, but I’m glad that we each got the 3,000 vote benefit.”

Jinyoung sighed. It was so like Daehwi to continuously blame himself for nothing. Jinyoung wished that he could wipe away all of Daehwi’s doubts and just let Daehwi be happy in whatever he did. “Stop blaming yourself, it’s all on the nation producers, that’s what makes this show difficult, right?” Jinyoung pulled away. “Let’s go back to the waiting room?”

Daehwi stayed still for a second before nodding enthusiastically and linking his arms with Jinyoung, “let’s go!”

 

They were gathered together to announce the collective results. A twist of fate happened and Mansae’s team one ended up being the team to win and appear on Mnet, none of the trainees could argue with the result. Everyone remembered how Woodam carried the team with his amazing vocals. The team itself was also incredibly talented, with the only F to A trainee, Taedong, the maknae rapper, Jinyoung (and name-sharer), along with two honey sub vocals, Yongguk and Wontak. Jinyoung also thought that the Sorry Sorry team two was also a really good stage. Their stage presence was all impeccable, and they all matched well with each other as a team.

After the first battle was over, trainees were given a little to relax before position evaluations, they had a day where they went to the gymnasium to learn a bit of gymnastics which was fun (Jinyoung already knew a little from incorporating acrobatics into their performance), and they watched previous episodes.

Surprisingly, Daehwi stayed close to Jinyoung the entire time. Before, Jinyoung would just stand alone and hope other trainees would talk to him while they did whatever they did, but now, Daehwi would provide Jinyoung with company. Jinyoung remembered Daehwi would drag him around to accompany him in whatever he wanted to do, like a late night ramen run, or going to a practice room to work on cover dances. Jinyoung liked it, just roaming around with Daehwi. They never ran out of things to talk about; Daehwi loved to gossip about other trainees.

_“I swear to god JungJung and Eunki are a thing,” Daehwi said as they were walking to the ramen shop._

_“Daehwi, I think you’re looking into these things too much, it’s their life anyways why are you so invested?” Jinyoung replied._

_“Jinyoung… hyung… you poor misguided soul, I NEED to know about these things, otherwise, how else am I supposed to entertain myself?”_

_“By caring about yourself?? And worrying about your own problems??”_

_“How can I have problems when I’m this cute?” Daehwi retorted, skipping around Jinyoung’s side to go in front of him and squeeze his cheeks together. Jinyoung had to admit that it was very cute but he kept his face as stoic as possible. “So that’s why I need to look at other people’s problems.”_

_“Okay if you say so.”_

Ever since then, Jinyoung was always updated with whatever gossip Daehwi would provide, and honestly, Jinyoung stopped minding it. It was fun, hearing about it, and it was another excuse to hang out with Daehwi and listen to his voice.

_Wait… that’s weird_ , Jinyoung thought to himself.

All the trainees were gathered to watch the episodes together. Jinyoung sat with Daehwi on one side and Jihoon on the other.

As they rewatched the episodes of the group battles, the boys saw just how evil Mnet’s editing was. Daehwi really did come off as ‘evil’ when choosing and leading the team. Jinyoung could feel Daehwi clinging onto Jinyoung’s arm harder whenever he appeared on screen, preparing for the worst. Jinyoung moved his arm so that he could reach the back of Daehwi’s head and massage his neck, trying to provide as much comfort as possible. Jihoon and Jinyoung kept talking throughout, but Jinyoung kept sneaking glances at Daehwi to check how he was doing.

By the time the episode ended, Daehwi’s mood had dropped. Daehwi still stayed by Jinyoung’s side, but rather than chattering his ear off, he just stayed silent.

 

Lately, Daehwi had been climbing into Jinyoung’s bed, and Jinyoung didn’t have it in his heart to refuse him.

_“Hyung, are you awake?” Daehwi asked, poking at Jinyoung’s cheeks. Jinyoung popped open one eye to see Daehwi standing next to his bed with a pout. He tried to make himself look as awake as possible._

_“Yes, what’s wrong??” He asked, sitting up a bit more and rubbing his eyes._

_Daehwi looked down and played with his hands a little, Jinyoung could feel his anxiety. Jinyoung tried to sit up more and took Daehwi’s hand into his own, rubbing them to calm him down. “Is there something wrong?” He asked in a gentler tone._

_Daehwi looked up from their hands. “Uh… I’ve been having trouble sleeping lately, and back at home… in-in America, my mom would sometimes let me climb in their bed whenever I had trouble sleeping… and I-I was wondering…”_

_“Daehwi, would you like to sleep here?” Jinyoung asked, knowing Daehwi would take a while to get to the main question. He pulled open his blanket to make it look inviting for Daehwi. Daehwi gave out a small smile as he climbed in, immediately curling into Jinyoung’s chest._

_“Thanks for this hyung,” he said, before closing his eyes to let sleep overtake him._

_“It’s no problem, Daehwi, I’m always here for you,” Jinyoung replied, while rubbing circles on Daehwi’s back to help him reach sleep faster._

Every night, since then, before they slept on their cramped trainee beds, Jinyoung would whisper soothing words into Daehwi’s hair while rubbing slow circles on his back. Daehwi would always fall asleep better like that and would be in a brighter mood the next day.

(All the other Boy In Luv members were conscious of this happening, it actually kept them up for a while, but they never minded, knowing the amount of pressure that settled in Daehwi’s head. They all missed the bright and bubbly Daehwi that always hopped around. They thought it was cute, honestly, since they had been staying around each other more recently)

After today’s episode viewing, Jinyoung knew that Daehwi would need more encouragement before falling soundly asleep.

“Mnet’s editing is terrible, they never filmed the better side of my face.” Jinyoung joked, making Daehwi giggle out loud. They were already cuddled on the bed, Daehwi using Jinyoung’s arm as a pillow as Jinyoung used his other arm to slowly rub Daehwi’s back.

“Both sides of your face are perfect, you have nothing to worry about,” Daehwi replied, snuggling closer into Jinyoung’s chest.

Jinyoung immediately flushed, not expecting that kind of reply. He didn’t say anything for a few minutes, unsure of how to even start.

(Meanwhile, Sungwoon was internally freaking out, his ship coming ever closer to sailing)

“You don’t need to worry about whatever the show made you seem like, just keep being yourself and the national producers will come to accept you no matter what. They’ll realize that you’re actually extremely lovely and kind and talented.” Jinyoung said, after collecting himself together. He felt Daehwi relax better, probably already dozing off into dreamland.

Jinyoung let out a sigh of relief. “Sleep well, Daehwi. We’ll conquer another day tomorrow.” Jinyoung didn’t know what came over him, he nuzzled his cheek against Daehwi’s head and fell asleep like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter!   
> Wanna One on weekly idol was so funny omg, and did you guys see them on Return of the Superman?? They're so cute it hurts TT^TT If any of yall are seeing them at KCON LA this week plz tell them I said hi (being on the east coast is hard)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been a little bit longer than usual! I'm on vacation now lol but I wanted to get this part out anyways cuz school's gonna start soon which means it might get even slower (or faster depending on how much i wanna try) but i hope you enjoy!

Evaluation day. Their first evaluation day hit all the trainees like a truck. Only sixty trainees would remain, which meant a little over half of them would remain after today. Jinyoung wasn’t ready. He didn’t want to sound cocky, but he knew that he would make it through this round, seeing how is rank has remained above the twenty-mark. The only thing he didn’t know was where he would end up, and he didn’t know where his friends would end up either. He hoped their group would make it in high ranks.

He let out sighs of relief when he heard that Sungwoon and Euiwoong made it, coming at ranks 21 and 17, respectively. Jinyoung’s anxiety grew as he waited for his name to be called. They had already reached twelfth place. Jinyoung prayed that he would be able to make it to the top 11, just to say that he was in there at least once, before the show ended. After a few more long breaths, he heard Boa’s voice ring out.

“C9 Entertainment’s trainee, Bae Jinyoung!”

Jinyoung’s legs worked faster than his brain; he immediately jumped out of his seat. He was so overwhelmed by the stares of the other trainees that he couldn’t even hear his own heart shatter a little bit at being so close and yet so far from the top 11. The stares started to feel overbearing, Jinyoung immediately assumed that they were thinking about bad things.

_‘How did that F trainee even get that high up there?’ ‘His vocals were all off and yet the national producers still voted for him?’ ‘I guess they really do only care about the face rather than the talent on this show.’_

Jinyoung felt small, felt undeserving. He knew that many trainees here had more experience, more talent, more confidence than he did. He’s heard countless compliments on this show about his looks, but none on his talent. He couldn’t help but feel useless.

When it was his turn to speak, he feigned confidence by thanking the national producers, tried to ignore the fact that he was probably only chosen for his face. Jinyoung didn’t even remember what he said, just that he fumbled with the microphone, trying not to have his hands shake too much.

Jinyoung walked up and sat down on the twelfth-place chair. Jinyoung could only stare down at the other trainees, who all seemed so far away. Even from this height, he could see Daehwi giving him a smile and a thumbs up. Jinyoung returned both back to him, feeling more alleviated, but it didn’t stop Jinyoung from being nervous from here. All he could do now was hope that Daehwi, Jihoon, Haknyeon and Samuel would do well.

The rankings were steady until they reached seventh place.

“Brand New Music’s trainee, Lee Daehwi.”

Jinyoung froze, and blocked every other stimulus out, just to focus on Daehwi. He saw Daehwi slowly stand up, awkwardly looking around because he probably heard other trainees mumbling amongst themselves, and scurry his way to the front.

Jinyoung couldn’t believe his ears. He was one of the more highly ranked trainees, why was he already being called? He saw that other trainees were also physically shocked by this turn of events, Jisung not hesitating to break out into a classic Jisung-shocked face.

Jinyoung heard Daehwi speaking, but couldn’t make out his words. He still couldn’t believe Daehwi had dropped five ranks. Sure, seventh was still an extremely good position to be in, but it seemed less prestigious when his previous rank was second, especially since he was center during the _Nayana_ performance.

As Daehwi walked up the steps to take his seat, Jinyoung made sure to send Daehwi a look, (hopefully) a look of support, of trust, of better things to come. They were still fine, they’ll make it through.

The rest of the evaluations sped through with a blur, Seongwoo lightened up the mood with being really, very, seriously, extremely, thankful towards the national producers, while Jisung practically crawled to his third place chair, rightfully deserved. Sameul and Jihoon were in the top two, and Jinyoung was glad. They both deserved to be up there. His teammates were doing just fine, all was well.

 

That night, Jinyoung felt that Daehwi was disappointed with his rank. He didn’t eat as much during dinner, didn’t play around with Hyungseob or Samuel as much when they decided to go through a girl group dance marathon and do as many as they could. When they crawled into bed, Jinyoung made sure that Daehwi wouldn’t let today’s ranking affect him too much.

“Today wasn’t so bad, our entire team made it in, right?” Jinyoung asked, hoping to lighten up Daehwi’s spirits.

Daehwi nodded against Jinyoung’s chest. “Yeah, it’s very good, all of our rankings were pretty high too.” He replied, curtly.

“Don’t worry about your ranking too much today, we all made it and that’s what matters right? Rankings change all the time anyways, you have nothing to worry about.” Jinyoung ran a hand through Daehwi’s soft hair.

He felt Daehwi nod again against his chest. Jinyoung couldn’t help but feel a little ticklish, which was weird because he’s never been ticklish. Maybe it was a new thing? It still was weird since Daehwi wasn’t even moving, but the tickling continued. He tried to contain himself and not squirm. Jinyoung decided to try and change the topic. “Next evaluations are going to be the position evaluations, I’m pretty excited. We can show off what we really want to do! And we’re all in really high rankings so we’ll definitely get what we want.”

Daehwi looked up, “what position are you going to try and get??” Jinyoung couldn’t help but pause for a moment just to find himself getting lost in how big Daehwi’s eyes were. The light in the dorm was very low, mainly only coming out from the bathroom that Jihoon was brushing his teeth in, but it was enough for Daehwi’s eyes to still look as big and as brilliant as they would normally.

“I want to work on my singing. Back at the company, they always wanted me to sing more because of my ‘unique’ low voice, so I want to improve more on that,” Jinyoung replied, lowly, knowing that Euiwoong was probably asleep and didn’t want to wake him.

“I want to do singing too, hyung!” Daehwi whisper-screamed, excitedly, almost bouncing in the bed. “I hope we can get in the same group again.” He added, before snuggling into Jinyoung’s arms more, readying himself to have sleep take over him.

Jinyoung felt his heart flutter uncomfortably around. “I hope so too, Daehwi-ah.” He replied, still stroking Daehwi’s hair, feeling sleep overcome him as well.

 

They inevitably end up separated. The system was organized so that trainees couldn’t choose songs or positions based on who was already in it, which ended up with a super powered dance team for _Get Ugly_. Jinyoung chose BTS’s _Spring Day_ , sticking with his BTS streak from before, while Daehwi had chosen Blackpink’s _Playing with Fire_.

Jinyoung’s group was all way too young and inexperienced, the oldest being Yongjin, who was 21. They were already beginning to have problems, starting off with choosing the center. Woojin seemed like an obvious choice, with his bright voice and high range, but when he sang in front of them, his voice seemed to be cracking all over the place.

_Is he going through puberty?_ Jinyoung thought. _He did say he already did it though during his audition… maybe he was lying?_

Thoughts aside, they decided to go with Yongjin for their center, because he was the only other one with a real desire to have the position.

Kenta tried to lead them as best as he could, but they knew they were all struggling, seeing how everyone else casually made harmonies in their songs while their group stood around trying to just reach the correct melodies. After trying to think of ways to make their song more unique, they ended up only with having Seonho play the piano. They were starting to get frustrated, they couldn’t think of anything more with harmonizing or arranging, so before they could ram their heads against walls, they decided to approach the _Downpour_ group and ask for a little advice, Sungwoon, Minhyun and Jaehwan all had experience, and Jisung just comforting them would help too.

As they all sat in a huge circle, Jinyoung sitting next to Minhyun and Kenta, he noticed that Seonho was trying to drape himself over Minhyun, while Minhyun ignored it. After a couple more attempts from the chick trainee, Minhyun decided he had had enough and decided to drape himself over Jinyoung instead. Jinyoung found it unexpected, but didn’t mind, accepting the weight. Jinyoung looked up and saw Seonho huff a bit, before leaving to go play around with Woojin. Minhyun and Jinyoung ended up becoming friends all the way back from _Nayana_ times, since they were both in the C rank. Minhyun always tried to help Jinyoung with his singing, and Jinyoung was really grateful, but it didn’t end up working out for either of them. Nonetheless, they still remained friends, even from being on different teams.

Minhyun let out a sigh of relief as he loosened his grip around Jinyoung’s neck. “I don’t know why he keeps bothering me, what a weird chick.”

Jinyoung laughed. “Is the attention THAT bad??”

Minhyun nodded. “I’d rather he not follow me around that much, he keeps interrupting my private time with Jonghyun, and Jonghyun’s been getting more huffy thinking that I like him or something, when I CLEARLY don’t, I only see Jonghyun in my eyes.” Minhyun paused, before realizing what he just said. “Oh my goodness, don’t tell Jonghyun or basically anyone else that I said that!” Eyes wide, arms waving around to distract Jinyoung.

Jinyoung was shocked for a second but then let out a laugh, “don’t worry hyung, your secret’s safe with me, although you both don’t hide it very well…” Jinyoung added, remembering how they would spend time in practice rooms together, or just stared at each other differently whenever they were in the same room.

Minhyun looked at him, shocked. “Oh shoot really? I thought we were kinda subtle. Oh no, if Jonghyun finds out about this he’ll treat me even colder than he already sometimes does.” Minhyun let out a pout.

“Don’t freak out too much, it should be fine with you too, only really nit-picking people would call you guys out on it.” Jinyoung replied, trying to soothe Minhyun’s worries. He draped an arm around Minhyun’s wide shoulders to calm him down.

Minhyun slowly began to relax in Jinyoung’s hold. “Oh thank god… okay time to focus on your group, what do you guys need help with?” And from there they worked.

The _Downpour_ team was especially helpful in guiding their group, from Jaehwan and Sungwoon helping out with the new arrangement, to Jisung and Minhyun helping them out with vocals, they were all great. (Hyunbin didn’t do as much, let’s just say he helped with… comic relief? Not really, but he tried his best and it was greatly appreciated)

After working with the vocal trainers, they decided that it would be better to switch the center back to Woojin. There was a lot of tension from that, with Yongjin being salty to Woojin working twice as hard to prove their worth, but they still all worked through everything. Their team all worked together pretty well, all being pretty young, they all bounced around together. Jinyoung made sure to listen to Woojin’s singing more, since he was younger, he needed more solid support, and Jinyoung didn’t hesitate to provide it.

One day, Jinyoung was practicing alone in a room, singing along to the recordings they made. Just as he finished his line, he heard a knock on the door. He saw a familiar fluff of dirty blond hair bouncing at the window. Jinyoung let out a smile as he called out to show that Daehwi could come in.

“Hyung!!” Daehwi exclaimed, tackling Jinyoung with a hug. Thankfully, Jinyoung was sturdy enough to hold them up without banging onto something. “I heard you singing from outside, it sounds great!”

Jinyoung laughed over Daehwi’s shoulder, “Thanks Daehwi.” He pulled away to look at Daehwi. “How’s your group coming along? I’m expecting great things from a power group like yours.”

Daehwi laughed nervously, “It’s slowly getting better… we had a rough start since Dongho and Sewoon had communication problems. Like Sewoon’s arrangement sounded good, but he never communicated clearly with Dongho, so they had a little disagreement. Mnet’s going to have so much fun editing that,” Daehwi laughed, albeit a little bitterly. “Minki-hyung and I didn’t really know what to do, but we’ve worked on reasoning things out with him, but then Sewoon-hyung decided to bring up wanting to play his guitar, which set off another bout of disagreements, the whole thing is a mess, but I think we’re all finally getting through it.” Daehwi continued, Jinyoung just stared, trying to catch up, but he was amazed that Daehwi could continue rambling on for so long.

Daehwi finally finished off his rant by saying that they were finally on the right track and took a deep breath, “so how about your group? It sounds like you’re working hard,” Daehwi said, nudging Jinyoung with his shoulder.

Jinyoung let out a smile, thankful that their work is being noticed. “We’ve gotten a lot of help from the _Downpour_ team, since we’re all kind of inexperienced. They’ve been great with helping our group with our vocals and facial expressions and arrangement.” Jinyoung felt Daehwi stay silent next to him, which was very out of the ordinary, so he looked at him, only to be met with a pout. Jinyoung felt the urge to poke Daehwi’s cheek, so he did, catching Daehwi by surprise.

“You-you could’ve asked me for help ya know,” Daehwi said, keeping the pout. Jinyoung’s saw Daehwi’s cheeks get slightly pink, maybe it was just the lighting, Jinyoung couldn’t tell but he decided to remember it.

Jinyoung burst out laughing, making Daehwi start to stutter, “I-I mean, I would’ve been helpful too! I don’t care THAT much.”

Jinyoung finally calmed down, “You’re really cute, you know that?” he asked, pulling Daehwi into a hug.

Daehwi huffed a little, he still returned the hug, “I mean, I was just saying, but whatever it’s okay.”

They finally both relaxed and decided to work on vocals; Daehwi ended up being able to provide some pointers on Jinyoung’s balance and stability in his voice, but the entire time, Jinyoung couldn’t help but the ticklish feeling from eliminations bubble up again.

 

That night, as Jinyoung was slipping into sleep, he felt a familiar weight crawl into is bed, which was strange, since rooms were reassigned when they formed new teams.

“Daehwi??” Jinyoung whispered, voice scratchy and even lower because of how close to sleep he was, “Is that you?”

“Yeah, sorry for waking you up, hyung.” Daehwi whispered back. “I just couldn’t go to sleep for some reason tonight. I guess I missed your snuggles.”

“It’s okay, I think everyone is asleep so they shouldn’t be annoyed or anything,” Jinyoung replied, shuffling to the inside of the bed and opening up his arms for Daehwi to crawl into.

(Meanwhile, Kenta was very much awake, from running through their rehearsals, and freaking out; he didn’t know how cute Jinyoung and Daehwi were together from just descriptions. He knew Seonho exaggerated when talking, so he didn’t think that anything he said was real, but boy was Kenta wrong.)

“Is there anything wrong?” Jinyoung asked, falling into their normal routine of snuggling while rubbing soothing circles in Daehwi’s back.

“I guess I’m just really nervous about the performance, we’re only two days away, right? I’m scared of the comments, if they’ll say mean things again… I’m also scared of just performing on stage, Minki-hyung and Sewoon-hyung have done a great job helping me out, I guess I’m just still kind of intimidated by Dongho-hyung. It’s getting better though! We’ve been running through everything smoothly, at least.” Daehwi answered, talking slower by the end of his speech, probably because of how tired he was.

Jinyoung nodded, “Yeah… Dongho-hyung is still a little intimidating huh? It’s okay, you’ve been doing a great job. When we practiced together today, you sounded amazing. You’re going to be fine on stage, people are going to be wooed by your vocal skills, nobody will be able to look away from you! And don’t you worry about the mean comments, nothing will hurt you as long as I’m here, right?” Jinyoung joked, without even intending on having it sound so cheesy.

Daehwi let out a small snort, before settling in closer to Jinyoung’s heat, “You’re so cheesy, hyung, but I believe you.”

“Good, now go to sleep Daehwi, there are dress rehearsals tomorrow,” Jinyoung replied.

“Good night hyung, you’re the best.” Daehwi said, before shutting off his mind and going to sleep.

Jinyoung waited until he felt Daehwi was completely asleep before replying, “No, you’re the best,” and placing a small kiss on Daehwi’s hair. He was thankful that Daehwi was asleep, that he couldn’t see how embarrassed Jinyoung was. What he didn’t notice, however, was the small smile that Daehwi let out.

Jinyoung couldn’t help but feel weird, has he been feeling more nervous around Daehwi lately?? He’s been feeling more ticklish than usual lately… Jinyoung couldn’t even tell. Was what they did every night normal? Daehwi’s a clingy person, but he always comes back to his bed, so that must mean something? Maybe?  Jinyoung really didn’t know what to think. He decided that it would be better to go to sleep than dwell on these things, so that’s exactly what he did.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't find a good way to split this giant block up so I hope y'all enjoy the longer update!!

“You guys are going to do so well tomorrow!!” Jisung exclaimed, clapping his iconic Jisung-clap after listening to their team do a final run-through of _Spring Day_. All the vocal trainers gave good reviews for their performance, even though they had some critiques for Woojin’s vocals, since his voice has been cracking a lot. Jinyoung tried to help him through everything but nothing seemed to be working, from honey tea or just positive reinforcement. Nonetheless, they were satisfied with how they arranged the song and how they performed it.

“We seriously couldn’t have done any of this without your help,” Kenta said, bowing as deeply as he could, the other members immediately followed him. They were all grateful to their team for taking time out of their own practice to help them out with their piece. Jinyoung definitely felt that their team was extremely powerful, with Sungwoon and Jaehwan together, they were going to do extremely well, Jinyoung didn’t have a doubt about that.

Minhyun laughed, “they always say the best way of learning is by teaching, so it’s really no problem!” Sungwoon gave a nod as to agree with the statement, while Hyunbin bounced around cheering around just to show them how much they were cheering for them.

They all ended their rehearsals with a giant group hug and a loud “FIGHTING” before heading off their separate ways.

Jinyoung wanted to talk to Minhyun about his… ticklish feelings… before they all parted ways, so he decided to take initiative and ask Minhyun about his weird feelings for Daehwi while they were slowly filing out of the room.

“Hyung! Can I talk to you for a sec??” Jinyoung asked.

Minhyun immediately let out a wide smile, eyes disappearing into cute crescents before replying with a “sure, what’s up?”

They both sat back down on the ground, Minhyun laying a comfortable arm around Jinyoung’s shoulders. (What they didn’t notice was that Jisung decided to stay around to snoop). Jinyoung took a deep breath. “So you know how I talked about my close relationship with Daehwi right??” Minhyun gave a silent nod, eyes wide and attentive, waiting for Jinyoung to continue. “Well… lately whenever we get closer and… stuff, my heart beats out of control for some reason, and I’ve been feeling more nervous whenever Daehwi clings onto me… I know he clings onto everybody but,” Jinyoung sucked in a breath, “this is really embarrassing and really isn’t supposed to be shared, but we… cuddle? Together, every night basically. I don’t really remember when it started, but it helps me and him sleep better, and yesterday…” Jinyoung felt his cheeks flush, “oh god this is really embarrassing, but I… I kissed his forehead after he fell asleep because it just felt right, and I want to keep doing it, and we’ve been getting closer to each other, with talking to each other and stuff… what do I do??”

Jisung couldn’t contain himself from behind the wall and immediately jumped out, Jinyoung was so cute. “OH MY GOODNESS THAT’S ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE!!”

Minhyun and Jinyoung jumped in their spots before turning around and seeing a really flustered Jisung. “Uh… oh dear, I wasn’t supposed to be seen… but I couldn’t help myself! These kinds of things fuel me, and you’re honestly so adorable, Jinyoung. Frankly, I’m a little salty you didn’t ask me for advice, since I’d be willing to help, and I’d be better help than Minhyun, but it’s okay, I can still help!” Jisung said. “If you want me to, sorry for snooping again.” Jisung added quickly, with the decency to look a little ashamed.

Jinyoung let out a little laugh. “Sorry for not asking you for help, hyung, but I thought Minhyun-hyung would be able to give me a little more help since he has some experience in this… sort of.” He tried to keep it cryptic, just in case Jisung didn’t know about him and Jonghyun.

“Oh, you mean from him and Jonghyun? I guess that’s understandable, I’ll let you off this time.” Jisung said, casually.

Minhyun whipped his head at Jisung as Jisung settled onto the ground next to Jinyoung. “Wait, how did you know about us?”

“You guys aren’t that subtle, seeing how often you disappear to go hang out with him during our practices anyways,” Jisung quickly retorted. “I should scold you because of how often you disappeared during practices but I know it was in the name of love so I’ll let you off this time.”

Minhyun pouted. “It wasn’t THAT often.”

Jisung ignored Minhyun, opting to pay attention to Jinyoung. “So what seems to be the problem?? It seems like both of you are natural soulmates, what’s stopping you from confessing?”

Jinyoung shuffled in his spot nervously; Jisung noticed and placed a comforting hand on Jinyoung’s knee, trying to calm him down. “I guess… I’m just nervous. Daehwi’s always been clingy right? So what if I’m just reading too much into this or something? What if he just thinks of me as a comforting big brother? What if I’m wrong and then our relationship becomes strained and I lose him as a friend? I don’t even know how I would live if I couldn’t hang out with Daehwi after this.”

Minhyun let out a sigh. “This reminds of what I was thinking when I decided to confess my feelings to Jonghyun…”

Jisung let out an excited gasp. “Oh! Do tell, I’m all ears.”

Minhyun rolled his eyes. “Fine, I guess I can tell you guys.” He took in a deep breath. “It was a couple months after our debut as… Nu’est, and since Jonghyun was our leader, he was more than stressed out. I had always made sure he was okay and eating properly, along with help him get to sleep at night, but after our debut, I started developing feelings for him after a while. I didn’t think about it until Minki asked me if I could snuggle with him to sleep and I told him no, of course, and he went off grumbling about how I would only do it with Jonghyun because of how in love we both were, which kind of just set everything off. I didn’t know I fi should have confessed at the time, since I didn’t want the group relationship to be strained, especially since we were new… but I asked Minki for advice and you almost smacked me and told me to ‘grow some balls and just confess, otherwise I’ll just date you myself or something’.” Minhyun imitated Minki’s high voice, making both Jinyoung and Jisung laugh. “One night, when we were preparing to sleep, I don’t know what came over me, but I thought Jonghyun was asleep, so I kissed him… it turns out he wasn’t asleep, so I had to explain myself, but thankfully he returned my feelings, and we’ve been going strong ever since...” Minhyun paused, with a nostalgic gaze in his eyes, thinking about fond memories with Jonghyun. “Ahhhh, you just have to let your feelings out, you can’t go forever without letting them out, so you should just be honest and tell Daehwi how you feel. Sure you _might_ get rejected, but seeing you two together, I highly doubt it’ll happen. If I had just kept to myself like a loser, I would’ve never ended up as happy as I am now, so you just have to let everything out. And I can’t imagine myself being as happy as I am now without Jonghyun.”

Jinyoung thought the story was touching, probably not as much as Jisung, seeing how he was sniffling in Jinyoung’s arm. “That was so precious, Minhyun. You two are couple goals, that was so great, I’m a mess now, look at what you’ve done.” Jinyoung and Minhyun laughed at Jisung before patting him and helping him feel better.

Jisung looked up from his sniffling and calmed down enough to mutter a “just-just do what Minhyun said,” before going back to crying in Jinyoung’s arm.

As Minhyun was trying to calm Jisung down, Jinyoung thought to himself for a bit. He really wanted to confess to Daehwi, maybe he would do it after their position performances. Minhyun’s story was really cute, Jinyoung hoped his outcome would be just like Minhyun’s and Jonghyun’s. He could only hope for the best at this point.

“Hyung, you’re right. I’ll let Daehwi know my feelings soon.” Jinyoung said, trying to sound as firm as possible.

“AWWWWW, you guys are going to be the cutest couple on the block,” Jisung sputtered out, through his tears, which somehow increased, just from the thought of Jinyoung and Daehwi getting together. “My kids are going to be so cute, this is going to be great.”

“Yah, they’re not your actual kids, Jisung-hyung,” Minhyun said, trying not to laugh too hard while trying to dry Jisung’s tears.

“Shut up, I can dream. They’re so cute, just let me adopt you two. Let’s just go find something to eat I’m hungry, food will make me feel better from all of this sap.” Jisung said, standing up.

“Thanks guys, you were both really helpful,” Jinyoung said, gratefully, he really did mean that they were helpful. He felt himself get wrapped in the middle of a hug between Minhyun and Jisung.

“You’re gonna be fine, don’t hesitate to ask for our help, ever, okay?” Jisung said, rubbing his cheek into Jinyoung’s hair.

Jinyoung gave a nod before they pulled away. Minhyun draped himself over Jinyoung again, “let’s get some food!!”

 

Jinyoung ended up not confessing after the position evaluations. He was too stressed from the performance, and then receiving fourth place in their group. He knew the members around him were all way better than he was, but the sound of fourth place just didn’t sound good to him. He was disappointed that his eye wasn’t feeling better by the time it was D-Day, he really hoped that he would be able to show the national producers a good stage. (he didn’t really know what was wrong with it, but one day he woke and it was swollen to a point where even Daehwi couldn’t hide his shock with a fake smile, so he decided to hide it behind an eyepatch). Their group performed well, Seonho played the piano perfectly, Jinyoung felt that he was able to show a new and improved side to the national producers, they all harmonized well, but it all came down to Woojin’s high note that brought them down a little. The entire group knew Woojin was having trouble with the note, but he kept trying his best to prove that he still deserved the center spot, but all the training must’ve led to his voice cracking at the performance. They all couldn’t help but be a little disheartened after their performance, but they were still proud.

He was amazed by everyone else’s performances. Jinyoung and Daehwi stayed close to each other while watching, despite being on opposing teams, they still sent each other supportive glances before performing and receiving results.

All of the performances were fantastic, Jinyoung couldn’t help but be proud of his previous _Boy In Luv_ teammates, but Jinyoung especially liked the _Amazing Kiss_ and _Downpour_ performance, both with extremely powerful vocals and arrangements. For dance, Taehyun’s choreography for _Shape of You_ was outstanding, Jinyoung wondered if he could ever look as good as they did when performing. Their group definitely deserved the ‘Encore’ chant. During the rap evaluations, _Fear_ ’s rap really shook Jinyoung’s core, talking about each of their insecurities must’ve taken a great effort, especially to lay it out in front of the national producer’s like that. Jinyoung hoped that one day, he too could have the courage to pull that off. He saw that Minhyun was really moved by Jonghyun’s performance, the opposite being true with Minhyun’s performance.

_Playing with Fire’_ s performance was extremely beautiful as well. The rock arrangement was very unique and fitting, the guitar helping Sewoon show off his talent better. Dongho’s voice sounded incredible, nailing the notes perfectly and suiting the song incredibly well. Jinyoung couldn’t help but giggle a little at how excited Minki was on stage, he looked extremely fierce, voice growling and hand clenching.

In Jinyoung’s eyes, Daehwi stood out the most. He looked beautiful, his almost-purple hair styled on his head perfectly, with the loose white shirt hanging on his frame just right as well. The little confetti move was also unexpected, probably taking all the national producers by the heart, watch them try to leave mean comments. His eyes were sparkling in the light, probably from the excitement of being on stage and performing. His voice cut through the audience perfectly, clear tone and control. Jinyoung always loved Daehwi’s voice, it was so unique, its range so broad. Overall, Jinyoung couldn’t help but admire just how perfect Daehwi performed today. His stage presence behind the mic stand, his voice, his look, everything was perfect. Jinyoung felt that when they returned to the dorms that night, if he looked up a dictionary for the word perfect, Daehwi’s fancam of this performance was under there.

 

That night, they all decided to celebrate in their groups, so Jinyoung couldn’t get the chance to get his nerves together and confess. It was all fine though, he knew he would confess at some time, hopefully when his mind wasn’t filled from stress from evaluations or rankings.

The next day flew by, consisting of getting new groups for the concept evaluation. Jinyoung was voted into _Oh Little Girl_ , and while he thought all of the concept songs sounded great, he was glad that he was chosen for this one. The fans really knew him well, he just hoped that he would be able to stay in his song. Jinyoung was glad that Jihoon was there when he walked into the room. They were finally reunited again. He was also delighted that Gunhee joined them shortly after, being such a loud and funny personality. By the end, Jinyoung thought it was crazy that all the Yuehua kids had joined them, along with Moonbok, Sewoon and Minki. He was really excited to rehearse soon.

Rehearsals were fun, most of the people chosen for the song had really bright and bubbly personalities, so they all fooled around together happily and learned the song well together. They all motivated each other, not just by the deadline, but by each other’s skills. Wanting to all get better as a big team, it was a positive environment to be in. Jinyoung really enjoyed the companionship they all gained together. They also made sure to help out each other, so Jihoon spent quite a bit of time making sure Jinyoung knew the choreography.

One time, while they were taking a break, Jihoon and Jinyoung were sitting on the ground taking sips of water while catching their breath. All of a sudden, Minki joined them and started talking.

“You guys know how eliminations are in two days right?” Minki asked, taking his own sip of water.

Jihoon and Jinyoung gave a solemn nod. Another evaluation was going to come up, which meant the show was getting closer to the end. They were having too much fun training with other enthusiastic trainees that they didn’t want it to end.

“Well for when we enter the stage, we always have to do a little pose thing to grab the producer’s attention right?? What are you guys going to do?”

Jinyoung and Jihoon burst out laughing, it was one of the most random things to bring up at this point. Of course Minki would bring up something this trivial, but they didn’t mind because secretly all of them were thinking about the exact same things. After some careful thinking, Jihoon came up with an idea. “I wanted to do that rabbit pose you keep doing!”

“Ooh, hyung! That’s a good idea! We could match!!” Jinyoung exclaimed, lightly hitting Jihoon’s shoulder to show his excitement, trying to express how cute he thought it was.

Minki gave out a proud nod, “You guys are going to become the cutest variety sprouts, all because of me.”

Jihoon nodded, “Yes, yes, we’ll never forget about you… Captain Rabbit.” Jihoon added on, with a big grin.

Minki laughed at the nickname, “Captain Rabbit? I like it! C’mon kids let’s get back to practicing.”

They all got up, Jihoon and Jinyoung bouncing after Minki like the good member rabbits they should be.

 

Entrances were fun, watching all the trainees enter was probably the best part of the eliminations, considering how toxic the environment always felt, the tension always peaking at an all-time high, dreams riding or dying at those chairs. The rabbit bit ended without a hitch, everybody noticing how they all matched.

Rankings began, Jinyoung noticing that all of his original _Boy In Luv_ teammates were still going strong, even though the rankings were getting lower than before. His _Spring Day_ teammates seemed to be doing well, all except Yongjin. His rank was already quite low to begin with, so all of the members were just glad that they were able to work and play around with him at all.

As rankings got higher, Jinyoung’s anxiety kept increasing. Jihoon from beside him noticed and linked their fingers together to comfort him a little better, Jinyoung was grateful, the constant pressure helping him keep his mind off of negative thoughts.

At the end of everything, Jinyoung ended with 12th again. Jinyoung couldn’t help but feel disheartened. 12th was still an extremely good position to be in, but it was so close to the top 11, but still so far away. Jinyoung felt as if he genuinely improved this round, hoping that the national producers would notice him more, but he guessed it didn’t end up happening, since his rank dipped only to come back to 12th.

Jinyoung was worried about himself at his seat, but when he heard that Daehwi received 4th place, all of his worries were gone and replaced with pride. _At least Daehwi is doing well_ , Jinyoung thought. He deserved all the praise he got after the _Playing with Fire_ performance.

After everything, they were left with saying good bye to the eliminated trainees. Jinyoung tried to keep his eyes as dry as possible, saying good bye to his newfound friends, making promises to always stay in touch. He knew that he would especially miss Heeseok, the Jellyfish trainee. The show never ceased to reward and break the trainees at the same time, reward them by possibly moving up, or break them by separating them from new friends, old friends, and everything in between.

Jinyoung was grateful that they didn’t lose too many members in the _Oh Little Girl_ team, in fact, they were left with one too many members, which meant that they would end up having to eliminate a member, which wasn’t something that Jinyoung really wanted to do either.

His thoughts kept racing around his head as they began walking back to their dorms: would he just stay on the cutline to join the final group forever? How could they possibly kick someone out of their group when they were CHOSEN to be in there by the fans? Would his friends that were just eliminated be okay? All the thoughts became so deafening that he didn’t even notice Daehwi bounce up to him with a big smile on his face.

“Hyung, I’m glad we both made it through!” Daehwi said, eyes a little red from saying his good byes, but smile still prominent and genuine with excitement for the future.

Jinyoung jumped a little bit, startled by Daehwi’s sudden presence. He let out a small smile, “yeah, I’m kind of sad that we won’t be on the same team again, but it’ll still be fun.” As soon as Jinyoung finished the sentence, his thoughts immediately overwhelmed him again, bringing tears into his eyes. He didn’t even know what was wrong with him, he just started crying.

Daehwi immediately noticed, and grabbed Jinyoung’s arm, “Hyung, let’s go somewhere quiet, we need to calm you down.”

The ‘somewhere quiet’ ended up being a bathroom. By the time they got there, Jinyoung’s tears let out quickly, with no signs of stopping anytime soon. Jinyoung immediately plopped on the ground when they got there, trying to dry his eyes and cheeks, without getting any real progress. Daehwi kneeled down next to him, wrapping him in a hug from the side.

“Hyung, what’s wrong??” Daehwi asked, head pulled away to look at Jinyoung, worry very apparent in his eyes.

Jinyoung tried to stop his tears to let out a coherent sentence but he couldn’t. He was overwhelmed by Daehwi’s presence, by the elimination just happening, by the performances, by the practices. It felt like the stress from the entire show, beginning with the anxiety of talking to people, to re-evaluations, to position evaluations, everything, finally caught up and completely weighed him down. As he cried, he realized that he never talked to anyone about his thoughts, never let go of the stress that was crushing on his shoulders. He always tried to keep himself composed and act as a support for others around him, only to realize that he wasn’t ever taking care of himself. The only true release he got was with Minhyun and Jisung about his feelings for Daehwi, but otherwise, everything was bottled up too much, threatening to burst by the seams. The crying started to feel good, like everything was finally being let go.

Daehwi felt that Jinyoung wouldn’t be speaking anytime soon, so he just laid his cheek on Jinyoung’s head as he felt the other shaking against him, as he rubbed soothing circles on Jinyoung’s back like Jinyoung did for him every night.

Jinyoung finally calmed down and took a deep breath to explain the sudden break down. “I-I don’t even know what came over m-me.” He sniffled. “I think it was just because I never let go of my emotions from all of the evaluations and eliminations until n-now, and the thought of rearranging teams after eliminations was the weird f-final tip of the iceberg that finally broke me down. I’m really sorry for scaring you like that, usually I’m better at keeping myself together.”

Jinyoung felt Daehwi stay still on top of Jinyoung’s head, probably feeling uncomfortable with facing him right now or something, seeing how sudden his breakdown was. “I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable, I really appreciate you being here with me like this.” He mumbled, trying to make Daehwi more comfortable. He felt bad for making Daehwi accompany him in this state.

Suddenly, Jinyoung felt his hair grow a little wet. He pulled Daehwi down to look at him only to find Daehwi crying. “Oh no! I’m so sorry, I probably put you in a weird situation, I didn’t mean to make you be here for this, I’m sorry!” Jinyoung quickly tried to wipe away Daehwi’s tears.

“YOU IDIOT!” Daehwi shouted, rubbing away at his own tears. “Why didn’t you ever tell me you were feeling like this? I’ve cried lord knows how many times, but I never realized that you were dealing with anything, I feel so terrible. You should’ve talked to me or something, I’ve wanted to help you, to be by your side, like you’ve been for me.”

Jinyoung stared at Daehwi, shocked. He didn’t know Daehwi had these types of thoughts running through his head. He let out a fond smile (as fond as it could be through his tears), stroking Daehwi’s hair as he calmed himself down. “Daehwi, you’re seriously amazing, you know that?”

Daehwi immediately flushed and started crying a little more, “No, you’re the one that’s amazing. Dealing with all of my problems while holding all of yours in. You’ve been improving so well on this show and if the national producers can’t see it, that’s their fault. You’re seriously so talented in every respect of the word, from your visuals to your personality to your voice, I want to be able to stand level with you, with you telling me all of your flaws and us working together. I’ve wanted to help you for so long, but you’re always doing well on your own, I feel kind of useless.” Daehwi ended up mumbling the last sentence, probably not wanting to share that much, but his emotions overwhelmed him.

“Daehwi, it’s the exact opposite way, you’re the one that’s perfect, I’ve been always trying to scramble up to reach your level. I never wanted to show you my flaws because… it would make me look even worse than I already was in front of you… I just… really like you,” Jinyoung let his head hang low, “I wouldn’t ever want to push you away from me because of all the stress and thoughts in my head. I just… wanted to seem like a person capable of being on the same level as you. You’re so beautiful, from the inside and out, and so talented, from your ability to compose to your dancing, I kind of just feel like I’m always lacking around you…”

They both stayed silent for a minute, until Daehwi finally decided to speak up. “Jinyoung, you’re an idiot, look at me.” Jinyoung looked up at Daehwi’s big eyes, a little red from the tears, but still beautiful. Daehwi grabbed Jinyoung’s face with his hands, almost squeezing his cheeks together. “I’ve never once, ever, thought of you as below me. You’ve always supported me to the point where I always seek out for you whenever I’ve been having trouble during practices. You’re the best person I know here and… I really like you too.” Daehwi let out a small smile as he said the last part.

Jinyoung felt like he was floating, like every single negative thought in his head dissolved and was replaced with Daehwi’s words. Jinyoung felt his face split into a big smile as he wrapped up Daehwi in a hug. “I feel so relieved,” Jinyoung breathed out, over Daehwi’s shoulder.

Daehwi let out a giggle, “Me too, I was always scared that you thought of me as a weird, clingy friend or something, but I remember one night you started kissing me on the forehead before falling asleep, so I planned on confessing later, but I’m glad you did it first.” He teased. “To be honest, I’ve been feeling jealous because of Jihoon and you together, always filming videos for Produce 101 behind the scenes together, so I was already beginning to lose hope.”

Jinyoung couldn’t hide his shock for how Daehwi could’ve been jealous of him and Jihoon, they were just best friends… but Daehwi’s earlier statement was what really confused Jinyoung, and he pulled back, “wait… you were awake for those?”

Daehwi laughed, lightly punching Jinyoung’s shoulder. “Silly, I was actually woken up by the kiss the first time, but I made sure to stay as still as possible,” Daehwi started to play with the loose strands of Jinyoung’s hair. “Every other time, I was usually awake because I hadn’t fallen fully asleep yet, or I was staying up to make sure you asleep too.”

Jinyoung dropped his head and playing with his fingers, “Oh… I thought I was being subtle.”

Daehwi giggle and pulled Jinyoung close to hug him, “Don’t worry, I really liked them.” He pressed his own kiss onto Jinyoung’s head.

Jinyoung felt himself flush, so he kept his head down in hopes that Daehwi wouldn’t see his tomato face. They stayed together for a couple seconds, just feeling content with finally being together. Jinyoung got up, holding out his hand to pull Daehwi up, but instead of letting go like they usually did, he linked their fingers together. “Is… is this okay?”

Daehwi smiled, looking as beautiful as always, even with his red eyes filled with tears, and squeezed his hand, “More than okay. I just can’t believe you had to confess to me in the bathroom!”

Jinyoung started stammering, “I’m-I’m sorry!! I just f-felt really overwhelmed and then i-it just came out. I should’ve saved it for a better time, you deserve better than this… oh no.” He ran a nervous hand through his hair.

Daehwi just laughed and pressed a kiss to Jinyoung’s cheek before resting his head on Jinyoung’s shoulder. “I’m just kidding, I would’ve loved it no matter how you did it.”

Jinyoung kept feeling flustered at every little thing that Daehwi did. “Let’s… let’s just go back to the dorms to eat.”

“Works for me!” Daehwi replied, not noticing Jinyoung’s predicament as he skipped along to drag Jinyoung behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHHHHHHHHHHH I HOPE I DID JINHWI JUSTICE HERE  
> School is starting in like two days so updates might get spaced out from now on, so I hope you enjoyed this chapter!!!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A chapter of Daehwi's POV throughout the course of Produce 101 to the most recent chapter, I hope you guys enjoy!

Daehwi felt on top of the world. Higher than that, he didn’t know what that would be, maybe the moon? Or the sun?? Something like that. Jinyoung confessed to him, after Daehwi had been pining for him for who knows how long, and it was amazing.

Right now, Daehwi was snuggled in the comfort of Jinyoung’s arms, this time as his… boyfriend. Ooh, Daehwi shivered at that, it felt good to say. He wasn’t going to sleep anytime soon, he felt that Jinyoung was already asleep, so he just let his mind wander endlessly.

He remembered when he first felt feelings for Jinyoung. It was almost immediately, when he saw him during the first auditions. He saw how nervous Jinyoung was while he was performing EXO’s _Growl_ , how he kept looking at the ground, and it reminded Daehwi of himself, when he first went to America for music lessons, or when he first joined Brand New Music. He wanted to get closer to Jinyoung to help him get out of his shell and release his true potential, but there wasn’t much time to do it while they were rehearsing _Nayana_ at the beginning.

During the _Nayana_ performance, he saw all the F trainees around the center star, and felt awful for them. They rehearsed several times, and from behind, the F trainee looked incredibly good. Daehwi couldn’t understand why he was in F when he danced that well. As rehearsals went on, he figured out that it was Jinyoung below him, which made him want to get even closer to him. How was he so talented? Why was he in F?? Daehwi couldn’t figure it out.

Daehwi remembered during practice, Jinyoung stared at him while smiling, and Daehwi couldn’t help but laugh back. It was strange how they had the little interaction in the midst of all the lights and trainees, but they still somehow held onto each other in that small moment. Daehwi knew at that moment that he needed to become closer with Jinyoung.

Group battles quickly came, and Daehwi knew he would be able to choose his group first, so he wanted the best trainees, he wanted an ‘Avengers’ group, afterall. As he looked at rankings and skill levels the night before, he saw that Jinyoung was an F trainee but was insanely popular, so Daehwi decided that he wanted Jinyoung on his team.

As they finally were grouped together, Daehwi made sure to help Jinyoung out as much as possible, to make sure that Jinyoung knew Daehwi would be at his side no matter what, throughout the training. He even got them to have a part together before the chorus. Even if it was super tiny, it meant a lot to Daehwi.

Daehwi felt feelings growing deeper on that one night in the practice room, when Daehwi was having a break down about their performance. Daehwi didn’t know how Jinyoung found him in that state, but he was forever thankful for it. Jinyoung completely wiped away any deep worries Daehwi had that night, and made him feel lighter than he ever felt before. Daehwi thought his feelings for Jinyoung couldn’t get deeper than that, but they managed to do so.

Even after that, Jinyoung kept on surprising Daehwi. He thought that Jinyoung wouldn’t let them sleep together when he first decided to crawl in, but Jinyoung never seemed to stop him, which just made Jinyoung look more beautiful in Daehwi’s eyes. How could someone be so nice and benevolent all the time? Without ever expecting anything in return? Daehwi was thoroughly charmed.

He even noticed how Jinyoung would read his emotions extremely well, taking extra care to lift up Daehwi’s mood when he was feeling down with his words or make sure he felt extra secure with his actions. At that point, Daehwi couldn’t tell if Jinyoung was feeling similar things as Daehwi or if he was just a really considerate friend, so Daehwi never pushed anything too hard.

When they were separated for the position evaluations, Daehwi was pretty sad. He couldn’t dorm with Jinyoung anymore or work with him. Daehwi had a fair amount of stress working with his _Playing with Fire_ group. He was still unnaturally terrified of Dongho, he knew that Dongho was a kind soul, but Daehwi couldn’t help but change his mindset. He was glad that Minki and Sewoon were there to calm him down, but he wished it was Jinyoung.

The second he found Jinyoung practicing alone in a practice room, Daehwi made sure to take advantage of the situation to hang out with Jinyoung. He was glad that he could help him with his singing and just talk to Jinyoung in general, he really wanted Jinyoung to notice him a little more, and just understand that Daehwi wanted to be a solid support for him.

That night Daehwi had felt incredibly ambitious and decided to pay a visit to Jinyoung’s bed, missing him too much. He was glad that Jinyoung didn’t kick him out, not that he could, Jinyoung was too nice. As he slept that night, he was startled awake by the feeling of Jinyoung’s lips on his forehead. Daehwi couldn’t even tell if he was truly awake or not then, but that was the exact moment he realized that his feelings towards Jinyoung were very apparent and that the feelings he had for Jinyoung might’ve been returned, Daehwi felt light, he’s never felt this feeling before, he couldn’t figure out how to go about it. He decided to just act natural for a while, since they should focus on Produce 101 afterall.

 

Second eliminations came quickly, before that, they were separated for concept evaluations, leaving Daehwi to be separated from Jinyoung yet again. Daehwi couldn’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy when he saw that Jihoon and Jinyoung would be in the same group again. He knew they were close friends, a little too close for Daehwi’s liking, even though Daehwi knew he was being ridiculous, since he and Jinyoung weren’t a thing, he didn’t have a right to be jealous, but he felt a little dejected nonetheless.

Daehwi was incredibly glad to have been placed in _Never_ , not only was it written by super talented idols (Daehwi really admired Hyuna and Pentagon, so Triple H was right up his alley), but it would give Daehwi a new look, a more sophisticated and classy look. Everyone in the group was extremely talented, and very highly ranked. They had both Cube trainees (AKA cutest chicks), the ‘Nation’s Leader’ and Emperor Hwang (AKA power couple, they might not know that everybody knows, but everybody knows, except for maybe Seonho), Haknyeon, Woojin and Youngmin (Brand New represent), Seongwoo (their slate), Jaehwan and Sungwoon (honey vocals). They were all strong, Daehwi didn’t know how the final group would turn out, especially since there was a low chance that any of them would be eliminated.

Practice was fun, Daehwi was glad that he was finally on a team with more of his Brand New Music members. Daehwi also had fun goofing around with Seonho and Haknyeon, they constantly went around attacking the members with their cuteness. Seongwoo, Sungwoon and Jaehwan were really good at keeping the mood light during practices, always joking around. Jonghyun and Minhyun were really like a mom and dad, making sure that everyone was grasping the song properly while also making sure that everyone took care of themselves; Minhyun and Guanlin spent a lot of time working on the center part together. Woojin and Youngmin helped teach the choreography, since they were fast learners. They were a really tight-knit family together, Daehwi wished they could just perform all together rather than get separated. Realizing this just made him start thinking about how they would have to be separated into a final eleven after all of this was over. Daehwi decided to keep those thoughts away for a different time, hopefully very far away from now.

 

Produce 101 had a tradition of funny entrances, so him and the other Brand New Music trainees would always try to enter in a way that was cute, this time copying the Twice _Signal_ dance, since that was a super hot topic at the time. He watched as other trainees entered, laughing at some of them (like Ong Seongwoo’s). Jinyoung came out after the Pledis trainees, and Daehwi saw him make bunny ears with his hands, which were extremely adorable, however, when Jihoon came out, he made the same matching bunny ears. Daehwi immediately felt a sour taste in his mouth. He needed to calm down, this didn’t say anything about Jihoon’s and Jinyoung’s relationship, and even if it did, Daehwi didn’t have any right to get mad about it.

As they went through the rankings, Daehwi saw Jihoon and Jinyoung holding hands. Daehwi felt his heart crumble a little bit; did this mean that they had a thing together? Daehwi just wished that they could’ve traded places, that HE could’ve been the one to give direct support to Jinyoung. Daehwi didn’t know how to feel, that his first love was essentially over. He felt devastated, almost, if not for the fact that when Jinyoung was called up for 12th place (which was amazing), he immediately looked for eye-contact with Daehwi to give him a smile. Daehwi felt himself blush as he smiled back, he tried to give Jinyoung a look that would show that he was proud of how well he’s been doing on the show.

Afterwards, Daehwi heard Boa call his name up for 4th place, which was amazing, considering how much the people had bashed him on the internet before. His _Playing with Fire_ performance really helped him gain back the respect of the national producers, and he was thankful. As he walked towards the center stage to give his speech, he saw Jinyoung give him a thumbs up and felt thankful that someone like Jinyoung was there to give him support.

Daehwi was incredibly thankful that the national producers had kept all the Brand New Music trainees in the top 35. He remembered Donghyun having a meltdown the day before, thinking that he would be left behind, while Youngmin, Woojin and Daehwi made sure to calm him down and assure him that everything would be fine. (Sure, they didn’t know if everything would be fine, national producers were very sensitive this season, but it was better to give Donghyun the benefit of the doubt). He was amazed when Woojin had his initial boost from 75th place to 38th, and now he’s at 14th place, it was amazing. Daehwi couldn’t be more than thankful about Youngmin’s high rank, at 5th place. He’s glad that they’ve all stuck close together, always sharing funny moments together. He remembered laughing so hard when Woojin completely ignored Youngmin’s hug to go on stage when he was called up, only to run back offstage to give him a quick awkward half-hug.

After the eliminations, Daehwi gave tearful good byes to the trainees who would be leaving. This was always the hardest part of Produce 101. Sure Daehwi was glad that all of his past groupmates made it through, it was always hard watching other trainees leave. He thought that the rule of having all 60 trainees practice the concept evaluations before getting eliminated was a cruel way of mocking them and ripping away at their dreams, only giving 25 trainees a taste of what they were going to miss. He was glad that no one from his group was eliminated, but not at the same time because it meant that they would be tasked with kicking members out themselves.

After quite a bit of crying, Daehwi was a weak child, they started walking back to the dorms. Daehwi found Jinyoung walking by himself, so he decided to take advantage of the situation to talk to him.

“Hyung! I’m glad we both made it through!” Daehwi said, he decided to hug Jinyoung’s arm to cheer him up, since he was probably also sad about the eliminations.

It knocked Jinyoung out of his gaze, “Yeah, I’m kind of sad that we won’t be on the same team again,” Daehwi felt his heart skip a beat. “But it’ll still be fun.” Jinyoung sounded incredibly out of it, so Daehwi decided to keep on the quieter side, until he realized that Jinyoung was almost on the verge of tears. Daehwi felt twenty things run in his mind: _Who caused this? Or what caused this? Why is he feeling like this? What do I do? How do I comfort him? Gosh he still looks beautiful. Should I get someone? Should I bring him somewhere? Is there anywhere quiet that’s close by??_

That’s when Daehwi grabbed Jinyoung’s arm and brought him to a bathroom. His reasoning for the bathroom was just because the dorms would be super busy, the practice rooms were too far away, the dressing rooms would have staff in them, and anywhere else, Daehwi wasn’t smart enough to think of at the time.

He watched as Jinyoung dropped to the ground, Daehwi knelt down with him, unsure of what to do, until he settled on wrapping his arms around Jinyoung. He asked the other what was wrong, but it didn’t seem like Jinyoung would respond soon, so they just stayed like that. Daehwi remembered that Jinyoung would always rub his back before going to sleep, it was really relaxing, so he decided to rub Jinyoung’s back while the other one kept shaking, body wracked with emotion. Daehwi finally felt Jinyoung take a breath to speak. Daehwi listened as Jinyoung apologized, APOLOGIZED, for breaking down, even though Daehwi had cried in front of Jinyoung more times than he could count. Daehwi felt his heart breaking as Jinyoung kept saying sorry for suddenly crying in front of him that it made Daehwi cry.

He felt Jinyoung pull at Daehwi to look at him, only to say sorry, AGAIN. Daehwi wanted to smack him, why is he still saying sorry??

“YOU IDIOT!” Daehwi heard himself say, He didn’t really mean to call Jinyoung an idiot, but he was seriously acting like an idiot. He heard himself babble on about how he wanted to support Jinyoung and be there for him. Daehwi’s mind was swirling with so many things that he can’t even quite recall what he spouted out, or what Jinyoung even replied with, besides hearing him say five words: “I just really like you.”

Daehwi felt like he was floating, he had no idea of knowing that Jinyoung would return his feelings. It only made Daehwi start tearing up even harder. He sometimes hated himself for always being so sensitive like this, he should be happy, not crying even more. He wanted so desperately to tell Jinyoung that returned his emotions immediately, but of course his stupid tears wouldn’t stop falling.

Daehwi forced himself to calm down, he waited to speak when he stopped hiccupping.

“Jinyoung, you’re an idiot, look at me.” Daehwi felt a surge of confidence, remembering all the nice things Jinyoung just said. He even took initiative to grab Jinyoung’s face and squish his cheeks together. It was more for Daehwi’s sake, Jinyoung looked cute and funny like this, it helped Daehwi not immediately burst back into tears. “I’ve never once, ever, thought of you as below me. You’ve always supported me to the point where I always seek out for you whenever I’ve been having trouble during practices. You’re the best person I know here and… I really like you too.” Daehwi let out a small smile as he said the last part to reassure Jinyoung.

Daehwi saw Jinyoung’s face spread into a big smile, Daehwi tried not to yelp when Jinyoung grabbed Daehwi and pulled him into a hug. He felt Jinyoung breath out a sigh of relief over his shoulder, he couldn’t suppress a giggle. Daehwi blushed, admitting that he couldn’t tell if Jinyoung genuinely liked him or not, but he remembered the kisses to his forehead, making him believe that his feelings were returned. Daehwi couldn’t believe that Jinyoung didn’t think that he hadn’t felt those kisses, which made Daehwi end up teasing the other more. Everything seemed like a blur, but an amazing one.

 

Daehwi looked back up at Jinyoung sleeping peacefully above him, feeling safe within his arms, he stole a quick peck on the cheek, smiling at how Jinyoung didn't stir. He felt warm, at home, and decided that if he were eliminated the next day, it wouldn’t matter because they were finally together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was kind of awkwardly written because I didn't want to repeat too much of the last chapter, so it ended up like this, I hope yall enjoyed nonetheless! :)


	8. Chapter 8

Jinyoung felt like he was severely lacking. All of the groups were gathered to perform in front of the producers of the songs as well as the trainers and have them evaluate their progress. Their group as a whole did well, they could never fail with Sewoon’s and Gunhee’s vocals, along with Euiwoong’s and Jihoon’s rapping, and Minki’s and Hyungseob’s cuteness. Jinyoung was currently hating himself for messing in front of the producers and the other trainees. It wasn’t even that hard of a move, yet he messed it up. They were probably thinking in their heads: _Why is he so highly ranked when he can’t even perform this? He’s bringing the entire group down._

Jinyoung felt pain when the producers called him out for lacking confidence. Jinyoung knew that he’s always lacked confidence and the strength to believe in himself, that’s what everyone would call him out on. He knew the only way he could gain more confidence was if people complimented him, but how could they compliment him if he didn’t have any confidence? It was just a vicious cycle that Jinyoung felt like he couldn’t get out of.

After the performances today, Jinyoung felt like he needed some serious practice. He stayed in a practice room, away from the other members, just practicing his lines over and over again, as well as running through the dance in the little space he had in the room. After a while he heard a knock on the door, at first he expected (more like hoped) it was Daehwi, the boy could always bring a smile out of Jinyoung, but it actually ended up being Sewoon. To say he wasn’t surprised was a lie, the entire group was close but Jinyoung couldn’t really say that he was super close with all of them quite just yet, besides Jihoon at least, so when Sewoon walked in, a little sluggishly, Jinyoung stayed awkwardly silent for a little bit.

“I heard you practicing from outside, and the other members and I didn’t want you practicing alone, so I’m here to help out a little bit,” Sewoon said, plopping himself on the floor.

Jinyoung was surprised, normally trainees that he wasn’t close with would ignore him, only his closer friends would actually stay around to help him out, like Jihoon or Minhyun (or Daehwi, could never forget about his perfect new boyfriend).

Sewoon looked up from the ground, looking dazed (although Jinyoung thought of that as his permanent face), and said, “I don’t bite, I want to help you succeed like I want our entire group to succeed.”

Jinyoung snapped out of his thoughts, took a seat at the desk, immediately put a determined look on, and they began practicing. It was easier with Sewoon there, because he could give more accurate critiques rather than just Jinyoung snapping at himself, trying to pull himself together. Sewoon helped a lot with pronunciations as well as adding little nuances.

After what felt like the 20th time of reciting his line, he finally sang the line perfectly, with everything that Sewoon just taught him. He couldn’t even contain his excitement and let out an “Oh, yes, good!” Sewoon gave a nod, and to Jinyoung, it felt like the world was finally spinning the right way. Sewoon made sure to direct Jinyoung in a way that didn’t feel antagonizing or pitiful. He also made sure to push Jinyoung in a direction that made him felt like he could strive for even higher.

“That was great, but you can do even better than that, be greedy, go for the notes,” Sewoon said.

They also moved into the bigger dance room so that they could work on the dance together. Sewoon was always a little sluggish and slow, so it helped that they were there for each other. During the middle of the dance practice, Daehwi knocked on the door to ask if he could come in (or at least Jinyoung assumed it was Daehwi, he could always recognize his floofy hair from miles away).

Sewoon was closer so he walked over to open the door, and Daehwi immediately let out a quick “Hi Sewoonie-Hyung!” before running over to jump onto Jinyoung at full speed with a loud “JINYOUNGIEEE!”. Jinyoung couldn’t say he wasn’t expecting it, because he knew how Daehwi was, but he could say he didn’t expect Daehwi to do it in front of Sewoon. They hadn’t had a serious talk about who could or couldn’t know about their relationship, so Jinyoung instinctively pushed Daehwi off, straightened himself out before letting out a quick “Hey Daehwi,” before taking a step back.

Daehwi looked a little hurt at that, Jinyoung could tell with the small pout that formed, but he tried to keep himself natural in front of Sewoon. Sewoon hadn’t even turned around from opening up the door for Daehwi, it seemed like his brain hadn’t even processed what had just happened, so when he finally turned back around, he was met with a pouting Daehwi and slightly flustered Jinyoung. He blinked slowly, “Hey Daehwi, what’s up?”

Daehwi looked down, laced his fingers together to distract himself. “Ah, nothing much,” He looked up to try and pull himself together to look more normal in front of Sewoon. “Have you guys been practicing after the producer evaluations this entire time?”

Sewoon gave a slow nod, Jinyoung always thought Sewoon looked tired, or sluggish, or out of it, or just really care-free, Jinyoung admired it. “I was helping Jinyoung with his vocal part for our performance, and then we decided to work on our dance because I’m kinda slow.”

“Ooh, that makes sense. Are you guys almost done? It’s almost dinner time, we should all eat together! My _Never_ team finished practice for today, or at least Jonghyun said that, but he’ll probably make us come together after for one more run through, or he’ll force himself to run it through a gazillion times until Minhyun finds out and forces him to stop,” Daehwi rambled on. Sewoon had his mouth slightly opened, blinking, as if he was working really hard to catch up to what Daehwi was saying. Jinyoung thought it looked cute, not as cute as Daehwi and his rambling along with all of his hand-movements, but really cute nonetheless. He was called Ponyo-Sewoon for a reason.

Jinyoung gave a nod, “sounds good, we’ve practiced enough today, right hyung?” He prayed Sewoon would agree so that they could stop for the day.

“Hmmm,” Sewoon mused, tapping his finger on his chin. “I guess we can stop, let’s run through it once more and then end it. Daehwi, you don’t mind having a sneak-peak right?”

Daehwi shook his head really quickly. “Of course not! I love seeing hyungs dance, this’ll be exciting.” He said before quickly sitting in the corner and holding his legs close to his chest.

Jinyoung wished Sewoon didn’t suggest it. He was already nervous just dancing in front of Sewoon - at least in the beginning, now he was cool with it – but now he would have to dance in front of Daehwi, his BOYFRIEND, his extremely talented and beautiful boyfriend. Jinyoung felt like he was standing in front of BoA again performing to _Growl_ , he knew he shouldn’t feel this way, they’ve been on this show for a month now, but the butterflies didn’t cease to calm down in his stomach.

Sewoon walked over to the stereo to get the music on while Jinyoung stood in his position waiting. Once the beat came on, the music washed over him, and he totally forgot that he had Daehwi as his audience, he was in the zone and stayed in it until he heard the last chord and Daehwi’s clapping. He turned around finding Daehwi bouncing up and down on his feet, clapping with a huge smile on his face.

“You guys did amazingly! The practice today must’ve really paid off or something, that was awesome! The song suits you two really well too, national producers did a good job!” Daehwi exclaimed. Jinyoung blushed and scratched the back of his head to try and hide it while Sewoon just let out a big smile.

“Thanks Daehwi, we really appreciate it,” Sewoon said, he turned to Jinyoung. “Now we can get some food.

Jinyoung nodded while Daehwi jumped with excitement, “Great! I told my _Never_ team that I would meet them at the cafeteria, so let’s go now!”

“Oh wait, I actually kinda need to go to the bathroom, I can meet you guys there,” Sewoon suggested, opening the door for them to leave.

Daehwi shook his head, “That’s fine hyung, we can wait here for you so we can all walk down together!”

Sewoon gave a slow nod, “Okay, that works,” and left Daehwi and Jinyoung in the practice room.

It was a little awkward for once between the two of them, since Jinyoung pushed Daehwi off when he came in. They were standing quite a bit apart, and neither of them looked at each other. Jinyoung decided to break the ice, communication was important afterall, right?

“Daehwi,” Jinyoung started, but Daehwi looked like he also wanted to say something because he let out a “Hyung,” at the same time. “Ah, Daehwi you can go first.”

Daehwi let out a nod. “I’m really sorry for running up and hugging you like that in front of Sewoon. I don’t know what I was doing, I should’ve tried to keep us more secret, I mean, it’s only been like… two days, NOT THAT I’VE BEEN COUNTING… or anything,” Daehwi feigned being nonchalant about it, Jinyoung found it incredibly endearing. “But yeah, I’ll try to control myself a little better.” Daehwi looked down and played with his fingers, Jinyoung felt bad that he even put Daehwi in such a situation, so he let out a sigh walked over to Daehwi to wrap the smaller in a warm hug, placing his arms around Daehwi’s shoulders to pull him in.

“I’m sorry I put you in this situation, we haven’t been together for long so you couldn’t have known what I was thinking. Thank you for being so understanding, from now on, we’ll talk more so we can avoid situations like that from happening okay?” Jinyoung patted the back of Daehwi’s head while waiting for the younger’s response. He felt Daehwi slowly snake his arms around Jinyoung’s chest and tried to pull him in even tighter.

“Of course Jinyoung, I completely understand… I just… really like you, so I don’t want to mess this up.” Daehwi responded, nuzzling his face into the crook of Jinyoung’s neck. Jinyoung let out a laugh because he was a little ticklish. He pulled away to cup Daehwi’s face with his hands.

“I really like you too,” he said, before pulling Daehwi’s face slowly closer to his. He looked into Daehwi’s eyes to see if he was okay to keep going, and he was met with eyes filled with determination and want, so Jinyoung went ahead and gave a kiss to Daehwi’s lips. It was the first time they’ve ever kissed on the lips, and even though it was as innocent as kisses could go, it still meant a lot to Jinyoung (he thanked his lucky stars that he didn’t mess it up either). Daehwi’s lips felt incredibly puffy and soft against Jinyoung’s small ones, and tasted more sweet and Jinyoung could’ve ever imagined. It may have only lasted for a little over a second, but Jinyoung couldn’t be happier. When he pulled away, Daehwi opened his eyes, face flushed with pink, and let out a big smile. He buried his head into Jinyoung’s chest out of embarrassment.

“Hyung, I like you so much, more than I thought I could ever like someone,” Daehwi said, muffled by Jinyoung’s sweatshirt.

Jinyoung pressed another kiss to the top of Daehwi’s hair. “I like you a lot too. We’ll tell everyone when we’re both ready, okay?” Jinyoung felt Daehwi nod in his chest. They pulled away and waited for Sewoon to come back, Daehwi recounting how his practice went. Jinyoung couldn’t stop laughing at how Jaehwan accidentally kicked his shoe off so hard that it hit the back of Seongwoo’s head and made him pass out for five minutes. He couldn’t even imagine how freaked out Jonghyun and Minhyun must’ve been.

After waiting for ten minutes, Jinyoung and Daehwi decided that Sewoon must’ve either had some really bad diarrhea or that he fell into the toilet, so they decided to go to the closest bathroom to check up on him. When they both got there, they weren’t met with a horrible stench or cries of help, they were met with a sleeping Sewoon, leaning his head against the mirror with warm water running over his hands. How he managed to fall asleep just like that in that position, Jinyoung and Daehwi couldn’t even understand.

“Uhh… hyung?” Jinyoung asked, reaching to touch his shoulders as lightly as possible, afraid of startling too much and making him fall.

Sewoon suddenly stirred awake, bring his head up, away from the mirror, and shut the water off. “Oh what, I’m sorry guys I don’t even know how this happened.”

Daehwi let out a loud laugh. “Oh my god! We were so scared that you fell in the toilet or came down with a super upset stomach but it somehow ended up with just you falling asleep while washing your hands??”

Sewoon let out a sheepish grin. “To be honest, I don’t know either. I guess the warm water got to me or something, it’s really relaxing to just have your hands running in warm water. You guys should try it sometime.”

Jinyoung couldn’t help but roll his eyes while Daehwi kept on laughing. “Whatever hyung, let’s just go to dinner now.”

Sewoon quickly dried his hands off and ran towards the exit where Jinyoung and Daehwi waited for him. “Okay, I’m ready.”

Daehwi let out a laugh while they exited the bathroom to get to dinner. Sewoon walked in front of them while Daehwi and Jinyoung trailed behind him, in fear that he would fall asleep in the middle of walking. Jinyoung looked over at Daehwi and decided to link their pinkies together. Daehwi didn’t look over at Jinyoung when he did it, but Jinyoung saw a pretty pink blush form on Daehwi’s cheeks, and he couldn’t feel happier about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Confession: Sewoon was actually one of my fixed picks during Produce 101, so when I found out he got 12th place, I was sobbing in front of my laptop. I'm sosososooo proud of him for debuting (finally), and I hope yall will support his solo debut as well!! I just really miss himm TT^TT  
> There's only one more chapter of prewritten material, which means updates will be even slower, cuz of school and writing, I'm sorry :(( I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter nonetheless!


	9. Chapter 9

It had been a week, Jinyoung needed to tell Minhyun and Jisung about the recent developments, he felt like they deserved to be the first ones to know. It was harder since they were all in different concepts. He hadn’t talked to Minhyun in a while, he missed him, so he decided to tell him first.

Jinyoung peeked into the _Never_ practice room, glass doors not really providing any protection. Jinyoung thanked his lucky stars that they were taking a break. Daehwi was hanging off of Jonghyun, probably begging for snacks, and was the first to turn around; he immediately jumped up to greet Jinyoung.

“HYUNGG, what are you doing here??” Daehwi asked, bounding over to him, waving his arms around.

Jinyoung shifted awkwardly, he was extremely happy to see Daehwi, but he wanted to talk to Minhyun alone… heck it shouldn’t matter if Daehwi came along. “Uh… I actually wanted to talk to Minhyun,” Jinyoung said, making eye-contact with Minhyun. Minhyun immediately understood and got up. Jinyoung turned to Daehwi only to be met with a slight frown.

“Oh… that’s fine, have fun hyung.” Daehwi was about to turn around, but Jinyoung stopped him, grabbing his wrist.

“You can come along, I don’t mind!” Jinyoung said, giving Daehwi the brightest smile he could muster. Daehwi couldn’t contain a smile and immediately returned it. The three of them walked out to go into a practice room.

They sat down; Daehwi looked extremely confused, Minhyun looked excited and expectant. Minhyun couldn’t help himself and immediately burst out, “ARE YOU GUYS A THING NOW?!” Minhyun seemed just as shocked by himself as Daehwi and Jinyoung were, he immediately clasped his hands over his mouth, eyes wide.

Daehwi immediately blushed, trying to deny it. They both knew that they shouldn’t share their relationship openly because they were still trainees on one of the biggest shows in Korea. The urge to tell other trainees was there, definitely, they both wanted to show off each other, but if this got out to the world, they couldn’t even imagine the sheer amount of consequences.

Jinyoung laughed at Daehwi’s reaction, reaching over to grab his hand to calm him down, it seemed to work, seeing as he squeezed Jinyoung’s hand back.

Minhyun almost squealed at their hand-holding, “SO YOU ARE A THING NOW??”

Jinyoung gave out a big smile and nodded. “I wanted to let you know first, hyung, since you helped me give advice.”

Minhyun clapped and pulled Jinyoung into a hug. “You both are so adorable. I’m so happy for you both!!” Jinyoung gave Daehwi a look over Minhyun’s shoulder only to notice him smiling fondly. When Minhyun pulled back, he turned towards Daehwi. “Jinyoung here came to me to ask for advice on how to confess to you, it was really cute. I’m really rooting for the both of you.”

Daehwi gave a big smile and pounced onto Minhyun. “THANKS HYUNGGGG!” Minhyun audibly choked from the shock of the hug, looking for Jinyoung to get some help, only to be met with laughs. Once Jinyoung calmed down enough, he slowly peeled Daehwi off of Minhyun to pull him onto his lap and nuzzle his face into his back. Daehwi giggled because it felt a little ticklish, but he leaned in nonetheless.

Minhyun cleared his throat to get their attention, “SO, how’d it happen??”

Daehwi jumped in Jinyoung’s lap to tell the story. Jinyoung sort of tuned out the conversation, just listening to Daehwi’s voice; Daehwi could be cursing him out and Jinyoung would still think it sounded like music. It was also good that Jinyoung tuned it out because whenever Daehwi teased him about how he asked the other out, he would cringe.

_They were relaxing in a practice room together after listening to each other sing. It was a rare silent moment, since Daehwi is usually jumping around, when suddenly, he turned to Jinyoung. “Hey hyung?”_

_Jinyoung was absently playing with Daehwi’s hair. He was amazed by how soft it was, even when it’s changed color quite a few times. Jinyoung often stole Daehwi’s conditioner, but his hair never got as soft as this. “Hmm?”_

_“Remember when you confessed to me in the bathroom!?” Daehwi almost screamed, jumping up and laughing, knowing the kind of reaction it would bring out of Jinyoung._

_“That was literally only like three days ago and you keep bringing it up just so you can see me cringe,” Jinyoung retorted, curling in on himself, ashamed._

_Daehwi laughed, “but you look cute like this!” And wrapped Jinyoung in a big hug while planting a sloppy kiss on Jinyoung’s cheek. Jinyoung pretended to be annoyed but the goofy smile on his face gave him away. Daehwi could tease him about it every day, but as long as they were together, Jinyoung didn’t mind._

Jinyoung slowly wrapped his arms around Daehwi’s torso as Daehwi talked, leaning his head on his back. It was like Daehwi was his personal giant teddy bear, he was also very warm. Jinyoung liked it.

He registered Minhyun and Daehwi laughing, probably about how this all happened in a bathroom, but Jinyoung just nuzzled his head into Daehwi’s back, trying his best to tune it out. It didn’t really help that Minhyun was poking at Jinyoung’s cheek from the side that wasn’t pushed against Daehwi’s back, but he tried his best to ignore everything.

After they finish teasing Jinyoung, they settled down and got serious.

“It’s going to be hard to hide, you know,” Minhyun says, leaning against the wall.

Jinyoung sighs, holding onto Daehwi tighter. “Yeah,” he mumbles over Daehwi’s shoulder. “We’re trying our best to hide it, I mean it hasn’t been long yet, so we should be okay…” Jinyoung tilts his neck to get a better look at Daehwi. “Daehwi’s a touchy person anyways so nobody will suspect a thing.”

Daehwi blushes a little while Minhyun laughs. “That’s true, and fan-service is a bad thing. The line between fan-service and actual affection gets a little blurry before debut and during the beginning, but fans like any interactions so it should be fine…”

Minhyun let out a sigh, probably remembering his situation. “Jonghyun and I had a couple of fights because we had to hide our relationship. Communication gets hard when you’re always practicing or in front of a camera. Jonghyun’s a perfect leader right?” Jinyoung and Daehwi give agreeing nods. “Well because of that, he got extra paranoid whenever I did anything with him in front of the camera, afraid of himself, afraid of jeopardizing everything. He was the leader, how could he do something so possibly scandalous, right? So it was hard at first, but after a while, we learned how draw a line between actions in front of the camera and actions away from it. It’s just important to communicate, okay guys? But I really believe in you guys, you both have been close from the beginning anyways.”

Daehwi and Jinyoung share thoughtful looks, Jinyoung is the first to speak. “Thanks hyung, seriously. You’ve been super helpful in giving me advice, and now helping both of us with this. We’re… both pretty young, so we don’t really know that much, especially since this is my first relationship…” Jinyoung trailed off when he felt Daehwi jump a little in his lap.

“This is your first relationship?? This is my first relationship too!!” He swiveled around in Jinyoung’s lap to give Jinyoung a hug.

Minhyun let out a laugh, “You both are seriously adorable, my heart can’t handle this.”

While this was going on, Jonghyun came to knock on the door, probably to see where his teammates were, seeing how the performances weren’t too far away and they SHOULD be practicing nonstop. Minhyun looked up and gave a big smile when he saw Jonghyun in the window, he waved his hand to show Jonghyun could come in.

“What’s going on here?” Jonghyun asked as he walked in to sit next to Minhyun.

“Jinyoung and Daehwi were telling me about their relationship!” Minhyun said with ease, before realizing what he had done. He immediately clasped his hands over his mouth, eyes wide in shock.

“HYUNG!” Jinyoung and Daehwi shouted, just as shocked. Jonghyun’s eyes were wide open as well.

“I’M SO SORRY,” Minhyun exclaimed. “I mean… it’s only Jonghyun here who knows now too right? It’s fine~” Minhyun said sheepishly, trying to reassure them. He wrapped an arm around Jonghyun to show how non-threatening it would be for him to know.

Jinyoung got over the initial shock and nodded, while giving Daehwi a look. “I mean, if Minhyun knows, how were we not going to tell Jonghyun?”

Daehwi nodded, “Yeah… you’re right hyung. I mean I’m already in your lap anyways, I don’t think it’s that shocking.”

“I mean, Jonghyun’s as dense as a rock, but that’s beside the point.” Minhyun muttered.

Jonghyun quickly returned back to normal, coming to terms with everything. “Ah so this is what you two have been doing together, it’s not that shocking. I hope you guys end up happy.” Daehwi and Jinyoung shared a smile, they had Jonghyun’s blessing, which was basically the same as a god coming down and giving them his blessing himself. Jonghyun’s expression quickly soured when he realized what Minhyun said. “Dense as a rock?? Please Minhyun, get over yourself. You’re pretty dense, yourself.”

Minhyun immediately softened and leaned into Jonghyun, looking up with big eyes as an attempt to make him look cuter. “I’m sorry Bugi, I didn’t mean it~”

Jonghyun scoffed, but leaned his head on Minhyun’s shoulder nonetheless, relaxing. Minhyun let out a small smile, knowing that he technically won.

Jinyoung and Daehwi and smiled at them. Jinyoung watched their interactions and felt a longing, like that’s what he wanted to end up like with Daehwi. Daehwi leaned back onto Jinyoung’s chest, probably feeling the same thing (at least that’s what Jinyoung hoped).

After a couple minutes of all four of them relaxing, Jonghyun finally got up. “As much as I’d like to just hide in this room forever, we seriously need to practice. **Hyuna-sunbaenim** is going to be watching us, we need to get our act together. He took a second as he watched the rest of the trainees get up. “I mean I know Minhyun won’t care much about Hyuna’s thoughts, but I think it’s important that we impress her and grab first place, and we HAVE to make sure Guanlin gets Hyuna-sunbae’s and Pentagon sunbae’s approval, so we need to practice now… sorry Jinyoung.”

Jinyoung laughed, arms still around Daehwi. “It’s okay hyung, but don’t underestimate us, we may look cute but we’re fierce.” Jinyoung tried his best to look intimidating over Daehwi’s shoulder, but to the rest of the trainees, he just looked like an angry puppy. Minhyun audibly cooed and reached his arms out to squish Jinyoung’s cheeks.

“Aigooo, so cute, I believe you,” Minhyun said with a laugh.

After that, they all left to return to practice, but not before Daehwi pressed a wet kiss on Jinyoung’s cheek. “Work hard hyung! I’ll see you after practice!” He exclaimed before skipping off to the dance room. Jinyoung held his cheek with a smile while he turned to walk about to his room.

Minhyun and Jonghyun linked hands and began walking towards the dance room themselves. “They seriously are so adorable, I can’t handle this.” Minhyun said. Jonghyun nodded. “I thought your stories exaggerated their cuteness, but you’re right, my heart feels like it’s going to explode.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They're so squishy, it makes me so happy just proofreading the fluff that I wrote LMAO  
> I hope you enjoyed the update!!


	10. Chapter 10

Performance time came by quickly. Jinyoung had been preparing non-stop with practicing, and he had to admit that he was pretty satisfied with himself. When they got to the recording booth to record the song, the producers actually complimented him, he was absolutely elated. They had dress rehearsals before the actual concert, which was great because he got to see all of his friends performing. Daehwi and Jinyoung sat together, cracking jokes and enjoying the performance.

The _Never_ team went first, giving everyone a taste of how great they were. Everyone immediately loved the song, it was definitely going to be a big hit with the national producers. Triple H really gave Produce 101 an amazing gift. Jinyoung loved mimicking Seongwoo’s ”Every time, everywhere,” line, his voice booming each time it came up. He also loved seeing Daehwi on stage, he always had a different presence on stage, not a trace of his typical cuteness (Jinyoung always thought Daehwi was cute though). Minhyun holding the center position was also a good choice, Minhyun had a beautiful honey voice, and equally as beautiful visuals, Jinyoung could see why he was center. Guanlin really improved throughout the show, all of his hard work coming through in this performance. When Jaehwan first sang his high note, Jinyoung was startled, he actually visibly jumped in his seat, earning teasing from Jihoon.

“Mr. Deep can’t handle high voices, huh?” Jihoon joked, using the nickname Jinyoung got after the _Spring Day_ performance.

“Stop that hyung, I was just startled by how sudden it was, okay?” Jinyoung pouted.

“Too busy staring at Daehwi to notice anyone else huh?”

Jinyoung froze, twenty thoughts running through his head. _Does Jihoon know? Have we been too obvious? How many other people know? Is Jihoon going to judge me?_ Jinyoung forced out a laugh, “What are you talking about??”

Jihoon let out a laugh while nudging Jinyoung’s arm with his elbow. “I was just joking, no need to freak out.” Jihoon calmed down and turned serious, “But if there’s anything you want to talk about, I’m always here, okay?” Jihoon maintained a strong amount of eye contact, as if he knew Jinyoung was hiding something.

Jinyoung didn’t know what to make of that so he just let out a nod, “Thanks hyung.” Maybe he should tell Jihoon about him and Daehwi sometime.

 

When it came time for their _Oh Little Girl_ performance to happen, Jinyoung got up from his seat to head backstage. Daehwi let out a small “Fighting, hyung!” while blowing a kiss at him. Jinyoung tried not to blush so visibly, or look at Minhyun’s smirk from behind him as he walked away.

Their team got into formation and ran through their performance. After practicing it for so many hours, it was basically permanently ingrained in Jinyoung’s brain. They finished their performance in the blink of an eye, Jinyoung and Jihoon posing together, they were breathing heavily. He saw the trainers grab onto their mics to give them advice, so all the trainees stood together in a line. Jihoon wrapped his arm around Jinyoung’s shoulder for support, he knew that Jinyoung was most nervous when receiving critiques from the trainers, Jinyoung was thankful that Jihoon always helped him through it.

“Jinyoung has really matured well and grown a lot, right?” He heard Yumi say, and he couldn’t contain his small face crack into a huge smile. Sewoon turned to him to ruffle his very-styled hair. Jinyoung couldn’t even find it in himself to get mad, he was glad that his hard work was finally paying off. He could vaguely see Daehwi in the audience with an equally huge smile, Jinyoung felt even happier.

They got off the stage, Jinyoung returned to his seat right next to Daehwi. Daehwi leaned over to wrap his shoulders up in a hug, and whispered in his ear, “you looked so natural on stage, I’m proud of you.”

Jinyoung tried to surpress his shiver and attempted to relax in Daehwi’s arms. “Thanks.”

Daehwi leaned away, making sure to keep Jinyoung’s hand in his. After a little bit of just sitting, waiting for _Open Up_ ’s group to set up, Daehwi brought Jinyoung’s hand to his lips to press a short kiss. Jinyoung immediately blushed, he tried to look at Daehwi without turning his head only to be met with a straight face, or one that was trying to stay as straight as possible. Jinyoung could tell that Daehwi was trying to contain a big smile, and it wasn’t working THAT well. Jinyoung lightly punched Daehwi’s shoulder, Daehwi jumped out of mock surprise.

“Ow hyung!” Daehwi exclaimed, holding onto where Jinyoung hit, feigning pain. “What was that for?”

Jinyoung scoffed, “You know what it was for.”

Daehwi tilted his head to the side to express his ‘confusion’, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, could you demonstrate?” _That looks so cute_ , Jinyoung thought, _no, I need to be a little mad at him, everyone is out here and could’ve seen that, that’s no no_. Jinyoung pulled his hand out of Daehwi’s, and crossed his arms together, out of Daehwi’s reach.

Daehwi pouted, grabbing onto Jinyoung’s tightly curled up arm to try and hold onto his hand again. “Hyungg, I won’t do it again, I promise!” Jinyoung could feel his mentality fading, Daehwi was too cute to say no to. Jinyoung rolled his eyes, relaxing again, placing his hand in Daehwi’s lap. Daehwi let out a smile and immediately locked their fingers together, leaning across their chairs to lay his head on Jinyoung’s shoulder.

“Thanks hyung,” Daehwi said, closing his eyes, relaxing.

Jinyoung leaned his head onto Daehwi’s, it wasn’t a comfortable position, but that didn’t deter Jinyoung from moving. They watched the rest of the performances comfortably together. _Showtime_ was up, Jinyoung and Daehwi both equally excited for it.

“I’m glad Samuel is center again, he went underappreciated during the _Get Ugly_ performance, he was pretty depressed after it. It took a while to help him regain his confidence to keep working hard.” Daehwi let out.

Jinyoung was surprised that Daehwi knew about it. Jinyoung thought that he and Daehwi spent most of their time together. Jinyoung lifted his head off of Daehwi’s. “Oh… how did you know that?”

Daehwi lifted his head up too. “He would come to me for help during our breaks from practice.” Daehwi could sense Jinyoung’s confusion. “What, did you think I spent all my time with you??”

Jinyoung felt a little hurt, even though he knew he didn’t have a right to. Daehwi was allowed to have friends, of course, there’s no way he could’ve been with Jinyoung that much. Daehwi was also more social than Jinyoung, so there wasn’t really any surprise that he would be talking to the other trainees anyways. Jinyoung decided to let it go and forced out a laugh. “Of course I didn’t, silly.”

Daehwi snorted, “I’m not silly, you’re silly.” Jinyoung laughed, settling into his seat to watch the performance.

“Choosing Samuel for center was such a good decision, he’s so handsome, the song suits him very well. It gives him a different image from all of the other performances that he’s been in.” Daehwi commented, Jinyoung saw his eyes trained on Samuel. _Don’t be jealous, this is normal_ , Jinyoung steeled himself in his head, trying to calm himself down. He tried to focus on the other trainees as well.

“I’m glad Sungwoon was able to get chosen for this group. Jisung and Woojin also really match well for the song!” Jinyoung said, trying to distract Daehwi from Samuel.

“Yeah, they’re all doing a great job, especially in choosing Samuel as the center, he deserves it, they chose very well” Daehwi said with a smile.

Jinyoung tried to calm himself down, but he had no idea Daehwi and Samuel were close. Sure they hung out a bunch during _Boy In Luv_ , but they all did at the time. It was pretty selfish of himself to think that Daehwi only hung out with him, maybe Jinyoung didn’t know Daehwi as well as he thought. He made a note to work harder on that from now on.

When the performance finished, Daehwi kept going on and on about how great Samuel performed. Jinyoung was trying hard not to frown when he watched Daehwi give Samuel a hug, especially when he saw Samuel squeeze Daehwi back. When Daehwi returned to his seat next to Jinyoung, Jinyoung stayed silent, trying not to let what just happened get on his nerves. He made sure to talk more to Sewoon and Euiwoong, who were sitting close to him, instead. He knew that if he started talking to Daehwi, he probably wouldn’t be able to contain himself in front of the other trainees. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Daehwi had no trouble just turning to his side to talk to Guanlin. Jinyoung deflated internally, feeling a little jealous that Daehwi was so independent, which was a weird thing to be jealous about, but maybe it was just Jinyoung feeling insecure.

While Jinyoung stayed silent, he thought back to his past. He was the oldest of a younger brother and sister. When they were first born, Jinyoung remembered spending a long time sulking from the lack of attention from his parents, since they were directed on his siblings at the time. It took him a long time to come to terms with having siblings. That was probably where all of this insecurity sprouted from, and it was just reinforced throughout his life, from lack of many close friends at school, to being ignored during the beginning of the show from being too shy and untalented. Jinyoung hated that he was this insecure about himself, but seeing how Daehwi was so independent really hammered home how insecure he really was.

By the end of everything, Jinyoung and Daehwi hadn’t talked at all. Jinyoung was too busy thinking that he didn’t notice Daehwi sending worried looks in Jinyoung’s direction multiple times throughout the rest of the performances.

They began all walking back to the dorms, Jinyoung taking extra care to just talk with Jihoon rather than just walking alone and letting his head fill up with his insecurity. When they stopped talking, he heard Daehwi call from behind him. “Jinyoung-hyung!”

Jinyoung felt his heart sink, he didn’t want to have to talk to Daehwi this soon, not before he could sort out the issues in his head. He turned around slowly, knowing that Jihoon was paying attention to him as well. “Hey Daehwi, what’s up?”

Daehwi walked up to the two of them. “Hey Jihoon-hyung, can I borrow Jinyoung for a little bit??”

Jihoon sent a smirk at Jinyoung. “Sure thing, Daehwi.” He nudged Jinyoung with his elbow, startling Jinyoung. “I’ll catch you later, Jinyoung.” He said, before continuing toward the direction of the dorms.

Jinyoung internally cursed at Jihoon for leaving him. Before he could open his mouth to say anything Daehwi, he found himself getting dragged by Daehwi towards the direction of the dressing rooms, which would be empty at this point. Daehwi took care to shut the door and turned towards Jinyoung.

“Hyung…” Daehwi started, “Did I do something wrong?”

Jinyoung dreaded this question. He knew Daehwi didn’t do anything wrong, it was all his own fault. “It’s nothing that you did wrong, Daehwi.”

“Well then why have you been ignoring me? We were fine at the beginning of the rehearsal… what happened??” Daehwi asked, Jinyoung could tell Daehwi’s frustration was building up.

Jinyoung decided it would be better to admit everything, since they were in a relationship, after all. He took a deep breath. “I was just being stupid… it seriously isn’t your fault.” He held his own head with his hands, breathing in and out loudly, trying to calm himself down to tell Daehwi everything, because he was honestly just being stupid.

Daehwi could sense Jinyoung’s distress and tried to calm him down. He held the older’s shoulders and brought them both on the ground. “Hey hyung, it’s okay, calm down, we’ll talk through this together, okay?” He saw Jinyoung give a small nod, breathing less heavily. “Okay hyung, so what’s wrong?”

Jinyoung took a breath. “I guess… don’t judge me too harshly,” he said, he didn’t continue until he saw Daehwi nod. “I was just jealous that you were talking about Samuel a lot during the performances. He’s just so much more talented and handsome and charismatic than me, it kind of makes me wonder…” He sighed. “If you’ll end up leaving me for someone way better,” he let out in a small voice.

Daehwi let out a sigh as well. “Do you think I don’t feel the same way?”

Jinyoung looked at Daehwi. “Do you actually?” He asked in a small voice.

Daehwi giggled a little bit. “Of course I do, you’re so handsome, everyone looks at you when you’re in the room. How could I not get a little nervous… especially when you hang around Jihoon all the time. Sometimes I wonder why you’re with me instead of him,” Daehwi looked down at his hands as he admitted it. “He’s so highly ranked and much more handsome than I am… I remember before we got together, he and you seemed like a perfect pairing, I almost gave up on the thought of being with you.” Daehwi explained quietly. Jinyoung never knew about this side of Daehwi. It always felt like Jinyoung was chasing after Daehwi because he was so unreachable, he had no idea Daehwi shared his thoughts. Daehwi looked like he had more to say so Jinyoung stayed quiet.

“You asked me to be your boyfriend, and it was one of the best days of my life. I don’t feel any of my pain anymore because… because I trust you.” Daehwi looked Jinyoung directly in the eyes. “I trust that you wouldn’t do anything to hurt me or betray me, I trust that you’ll come back to me in the end even if we spend our entire day separated, I trust that we’ll work through anything together no matter what it is.” Daehwi paused. “I know we haven’t been together for that long yet, so I understand that you don’t trust me completely just yet. Just know that I would never want to hurt you in any way okay? So if I do end up hurting you, just be selfish and tell me, okay?” Daehwi grabbed Jinyoung’s face to force them to maintain eye contact the entire time. Jinyoung could feel himself tearing up throughout Daehwi’s speech because of how sincere his round eyes looked. Jinyoung didn’t want Daehwi to get nervous by his silence so he gave the younger a nod.

“I promise I’ll let you know next time instead of being childish… I really don’t know why I did that, I’m sorry again.” Jinyoung muttered, willing his tears to go back in. Daehwi gave a small smile and laid a small kiss on the top of Jinyoung’s forehead.

“We’re both working through this together, it’s both of our first times in a relationship right?” Daehwi asked. Jinyoung gave a silent nod. Daehwi wrapped up Jinyoung in a warm hug.

Jinyoung leaned into Daehwi’s neck for warmth, “Yeah, we’ll make it through together and stay together forever.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lil sprinkle of angst just cuz :D  
> I feel like my timeline for this is a lil tight (since the show actually wasn't on for THAT long) but so far it's been working so I hope you guys have been enjoying this! <3


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I HAVE RETURNED FROM THE DEAD, that is school  
> I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!! It's slightly longer than the usual ones so hopefully that'll make up for the longer wait TT^TT

The concept evaluations were over. Daehwi was disappointed that _Never_ didn’t get first place, none of them were as disappointed as Jonghyun or Seongwoo, since they were both the most confident in the beginning. Jinyoung remembered seeing Daniel run after Seongwoo to try and cheer him up, apologizing for getting first place while Seongwoo sulked (although they all knew Seongwoo didn’t care).

The trainees were given a bit of a break to do what they want, so Minhyun spent the entire break trying to bring Jonghyun back to his previous confidence as they went to visit Minhyun’s family together. Jinyoung went back home while Daehwi was stuck at the dorms since his mom was back in America, but they made sure to stay in contact over the phone the entire time.

_Daehwi <3: hey remember way back when?_

_Baejinniee <3 <3: way back when what?_

_Daehwi <3: WAY BACK WHEN NEVER SHOULD’VE BEEN FIRST_

_Baejinnie <3 <3: omg Daehwi why are you still not over it, focus on spending quality time with relaxing, not getting hung up about this, you guys still got second place._

_Daehwi <3: _ヾ(`ヘ´)ﾉﾞ _this is still injustice and I’ve beEN relaxing but it’s kinda hard to when I’m stressed out about this  
And i miss you_(>д<)

_Baejinnie <3 <3: sighs I miss you too  
I wish I could’ve invited you over but you know about my parents’ weird no friends over policy_

_Daehwi <3: TT^TT I knowww it’s okay  
It’s fun being here, Guanlinnie, gukkie and Samuel are here too so we’ve been playing around_

_Baejinnie: mmmm that’s good_

_Daehwi: don’t get jealous hyung, I promise it isn’t as fun as if just you were heree~~ <3 <3_

_Baejinnie: I didn’t say anythingg_

_Daehwi: I know what ur thinking_ (´ ω `♡)

_Baejinnie: … shutup  
I have to go play with Hyukkie cuz he’s getting antsy, I’ll talk to you later_

_Daehwi: Okayy~ don’t have too much fun without meee_ (⇀ 3 ↼)

_Baejinnie: ew  
I promise I won’t_

_Daehwi: talk to you soon hyunggg_

_Baejinnie: <3_

Jinyoung always liked messages from Daehwi, his way of texting was cute, everything about Daehwi was cute, how was anybody so cute? He remembered the moment he came back:

_Jinyoung gave a final hug to his parents, both of them gave him a tight hug, wishing him the best of luck for the rest of the show. He remembered messaging Daehwi a couple minutes before they arrived at the dorms, but the other hadn’t responded yet. The second his parents’ car was out of sight, he felt a weight tackle him and if not for Jinyoung holding onto his heavy suitcase, he would’ve fell face first and broke his face. He felt the familiar cling of Daehwi, but he had yet to get over the initial shock of how dangerous this was._

_“Daehwi, we almost could’ve DIED!” Jinyoung exclaimed, turning around to look at the other. Daehwi pouted a little._

_“But I missed you so much hyung.” Daehwi mumbled as he tried to hug Jinyoung tighter._

_Jinyoung couldn’t stay mad at Daehwi so he immediately softened and returned Daehwi’s hug. “I missed you a lot too.”_

_Daehwi snuggled in to Jinyoung’s neck, taking in the familiar scent. “The bed felt lonely without you.”_

_Jinyoung pressed a kiss to Daehwi’s soft hair while rubbing his back, “Let’s catch up more inside okay? I feel like staff won’t be happy if they catch us hugging in front of the entrance for much longer.”_

_Daehwi let out a laugh while he quickly separated from Jinyoung, “I missed you so much that I forgot to be more subtle in open areas.”_

_Jinyoung grabbed onto his suitcase to begin rolling it inside, “It’s okay, I did too. We’re technically still on break, we still have a day left, there shouldn’t be any cameras.” Jinyoung let his free hand hold onto Daehwi’s as they walked back._

Now was the morning after the day Jinyoung came back to the dorm, and they still had a free day left. Jinyoung wanted to finally take Daehwi out on a date: dinner, movie, the cute walk in the park, the whole thing. They’ve been technically together for almost three weeks, so Jinyoung thought that Daehwi deserved a true first date, like in all the movies. Jinyoung asked his mom for extra allowance, lying that he used up his previous cash (he never used any of it since there was never a chance to use any of it anyways), just to make sure that the outing with Daehwi would be perfect.

Jinyoung spent his day going over the entire date with Jihoon (not before letting Daehwi know to keep his evening open “for no special reason whatsoever”):

_“Hey loser,” Jinyoung called out in the dance room, making Jihoon jump._

_“What up dork, how was the break?” Jihoon replied, going towards the wall to sit and take a break from his freestyle dancing._

_“It was fine, family is doing fine, just praying that I can make it into the top 20, how was yours?”_

_“All good, they’re shocked that I got on top of the rankings in all honesty,” Jihoon joked. “So why are you here?”_

_It was just like Jihoon to cut to the chase. Jinyoung sighed, it was time to release his secret. “Okay so… I need to tell you something,” He didn’t say anything until Jihoon gave a reassuring nod for Jinyoung to go on. “I’m… I’m dating Daehwi now and I wanted some help planning our first date,” Jinyoung admitted, looking down, afraid of Jihoon’s reaction._

_He heard Jihoon sigh in front of him. “You idiot, did you really think I couldn’t tell? You guys are so close, I’m pretty sure even Daehwi knew everybody knew you two were dating, it’s just you. It’s like how Minhyun gets shocked every time we tell him we know he’s with Jonghyun.” Jihoon said, giving Jinyoung a pat on the shoulder to relax him._

_Jinyoung looked up in surprise, “seriously? It’s that obvious?? I’m just as bad as Minhyun??”_

_Jihoon gave a nod, “yup, maybe not AS bad since even you knew he was dating Jonghyun. Stop being nervous around me when Daehwi’s there, okay? Let’s get planning with your date.”_

_“Okay so the plan is you call a taxi for both ways, from the dorm to the chicken restaurant, and then from the grand entrance of the park back to the dorms, before 11, since the doors autolock from the outside.” Jihoon recalled the main travel part._

_“Yes, and then we’re going to eat chicken, walk over the theater three streets away to go watch whatever movie Daehwi chooses as long as it’s not a sappy romance movie since I hate those, and then cross the street to the park and stroll around.” Jinyoung affirmed, trying to make sure there wasn’t a flaw in his plan._

_“Sounds like the most typical date night ever, are you sure Daehwi’s gonna like this?”_

_Jinyoung let the weight of Jihoon’s words settle in his head. “… oh god you have a point, what if Daehwi thinks it’s boring?? Oh no oh no what if he hates it, OH GOD I SHOULD CHANGE THE DATE!” Jinyoung freaked out, grabbing Jihoon’s shoulder and shaking him around._

_Jihoon put his hands on top of Jinyoung’s to calm him down, mainly because his head was beginning to get dizzy. “Calm down dude, it was just a comment, Daehwi loves you too much to think spending time with you would get boring.”_

_Jinyoung got flustered at the comment, “lo-loves, I wouldn’t say that.” He cleared his throat, still too flustered to look at Jihoon’s teasing smile. “ANYWAYS, a bouquet is going to be delivered in one hour to start everything off.”_

_Jihoon nodded, bored. “Yes, we’ve went over this like 20 times, it sounds perfect. If he doesn’t like it, just take me on a date instead, I’ll stay happy for you if you’re gonna go all out on all the dates like this.” Jinyoung pushed Jihoon to the ground. Jihoon sat back up to speak more about the date plans. “Just make sure you wear masks wherever you go, don’t be too touchy in public until you’re sure nobody will know you guys, or that you guys are in the secluded corner of the restaurant and movie theater.”_

_Jinyoung gave a nod. He felt sad that they couldn’t even have a normal date before the possibility of getting recognized or even mobbed was too great._

_Jihoon gave Jinyoung another pat on the back, “I know it’ll be kind of hard, but I’m pretty sure the both of you are still going to have a great time. Daehwi’s going to love it.”_

_The two of them just sat in the dance room, talking more in depth about their break until Jinyoung got the text that the flowers were there._

_“Okay man, you’ve got this, everything is planned out, have a great time!” Jihoon said, wrapping Jinyoung up in a brief hug to reassure him._

_“Thanks for helping me out today, I really appreciate it,” Jinyoung said, returning the hug and left. Jihoon sent him off as if he was a mom wishing him luck on his first date, which wasn’t all too incorrect._

Now Jinyoung was waiting outside of Daehwi’s dorm room. He had texted Daehwi before to go to his room and get dressed (again for “no reason whatsoever”). The flowers looked even more vibrant in person, Jinyoung was as ready as he ever was. He gave a knock on the door, waiting for Daehwi to answer the door. Daehwi opened the door and immediately brightened when he caught the sight of Jinyoung and the beautiful flowers.

“Hyung, what is this??” Daehwi asked, as Jinyoung handed the flowers over to Daehwi.

Jinyoung scratched the back of his head to try to hide his embarrassment. “I wanted to treat you to a date on our last free day, since we haven’t had a real date yet, you know?”

Jinyoung looked at Daehwi’s face crack into an even bigger smile; he placed the flowers down quickly in one of the open cubbies and jumped up to wrap Jinyoung in a hug, sticking his face in the crook of Jinyoung’s neck. “You’re the sweetest.” He pulled away enough to look up at Jinyoung. “So what are we doing??”

Jinyoung pressed a quick kiss to Daehwi’s head while rubbing his back. “I wanted to go to that chicken place we found out was close to here, since I know you love chicken, and then there’s a movie theater close by along with a park, so we could go to all of those.”

Daehwi jumped in Jinyoung’s arms in excitement. “It sounds like it’ll be a bunch of fun! It’s a good thing it’s chicken and not something fancy, I don’t have many super fancy clothes.” He looked down at his slightly ripped jeans and simple white button-down shirt under a warm puffy jacket.

Jinyoung rubbed Daehwi’s hair, I think you look beautiful no matter what.” Jinyoung praised himself internally when he saw Daehwi’s cheeks flush a pretty pink. “I called a taxi beforehand so we should wait outside for it.”

Jinyoung made a move to leave the room when Daehwi held onto Jinyoung’s wrist for his attention. “Wait hyung, how much money should I bring? I don’t remember how much tickets and the meal are going to cost together.”

Jinyoung gave a smile. “It’s a date, right? I’m paying for everything,” Jinyoung braced himself internally for Daehwi’s protesting.

Jinyoung was right, Daehwi’s eyebrows immediately furrowed and his mouth opened. “I can’t accept that hyung, we’re both young, I can’t make you pay for everything today.”

Jinyoung smiled. “Then how about we agree that you take care of the next date?”

That seemed to calm Daehwi down to just a pout. “… Fine, let’s go.” He linked their pinkies together and began walking down. They talked idly on the way about their day and more about their break because texting didn’t do them justice. Jinyoung told stories of playing around with his younger siblings who were both overjoyed at the fact that he was in front of them rather than on the television screen. Once they were at the chicken restaurant, they were distracted by the smells and tastes of the chicken. They were placed in a booth at the farthest corner of the room. Jinyoung tried not to laugh at when Daehwi accidentally took a big bite of Jinyoung’s spicy chicken.

“OHMYGOD HYUNG WHY DIDN’T YOU PUT YOUR SPICY CHICKEN ON YOUR SIDE OF THE TABLE, MY MOUTH IS ON FIRE!” Daehwi shouted, trying to get a hold onto his water bottle and down it all.

Jinyoung laughed so hard that even if they were in the most secluded corner of the restaurant, people still looked over their way. Daehwi kept shouting at him.

“HYUNG STOP LAUGHING AT ME I’M ACTUALLY DYING!”

Jinyoung called over the closest waitress between his laughs. “Excuse me, can we get a big glass of milk or something,” Jinyoung managed to compose himself well enough to say the entire sentence out. The waitress came back quickly with milk as well as some bread, they must’ve experienced people dying due to their spicy chicken often.

Jinyoung watched as Daehwi shoved an entire piece of bread down his throat, still laughing. Jinyoung decided to see for himself how bad the chicken was, and sure it was spicy, but not spicy enough for him to end up like a sweaty mess, shoving a loaf of bread down his throat. At the sight of Jinyoung calmly eating the spicy chicken in front of him, Daehwi began sputtering. “HOW COULD YOU CALMLY EAT YOUR CHICKEN IN FRONT OF ME WHEN I’M DYING, YOUR PRECIOUS BOYFRIEND, IS DYING”

Jinyoung began laughing again, thank god they were in the corner. He stood up and slid over into Daehwi’s side of the booth to put an arm around the smaller. He started cooing, “poor Daehwi-ah, do you need more bread? I can call the waitress over again.”

Daehwi glared at Jinyoung as he took another chomp out of the bread. “Shut up and pass me the milk.” Jinyoung laughed and did as he was told. He helped Daehwi out by putting a cute curly straw in the milk. “Screw the straw oh my god that won’t get enough milk in my mouth.”

Jinyoung laughed again as he started rubbing Daehwi’s hair in a way that the other liked as moral support as Daehwi gulped down the milk at an inhuman pace. “Okay, I think I’m okay now, just stay over here to make sure I eat the correct chicken.” Jinyoung flushed internally at the lame excuse to get him to stay next to Daehwi.

He picked up a piece of safe chicken, held his hand out to catch any crumbs, and waited for Daehwi to open his mouth to eat the chicken. Daehwi made sure to return the favor by feeding Jinyoung his spicy chicken. Feeding each other came naturally to both of them, it felt strangely domestic, like they could do this forever.

The rest of the dinner, aside from Daehwi accidentally tasting the spicy residue on his chopsticks and screaming again. They walked to the movie theater after Jinyoung took care of the bill (Daehwi pouted the entire time). They made sure not to hold hands in fear of anyone catching them, it was still slightly light enough outside to see their faces clearly so they resigned to just chatting like they were a normal pair of “buddies” heading to watch a movie together.

Thankfully, Daehwi chose to watch the only animation playing in the theater (no emojis were involved god bless) and they both had a good time sitting in the corner with candy and popcorn, holding hands and chatting about the movie. Not a lot of people were there, so it was easy to play around loudly in the back.

The movie was finished, Jinyoung couldn’t even remember much of what happened, just that he caught Daehwi trying to see how many pieces of popcorn he could place on Jinyoung’s shoulder without him noticing (it was nine) before getting mad that the younger got butter on his shirt.

They both made their way to the park, Jinyoung remembered looking at a map of the park above and found that there was a small pond towards the side of it, so he wanted to bring Daehwi there. Apparently, through his internet searches, fireflies like to hang out there no matter the season so it looked pretty all year round. There was a fork in the road, and Jinyoung remembered the path veering towards the left, so Jinyoung grabbed onto Daehwi’s wrist and began walking on the only path going towards left. They walked along, Daehwi talking about the next popular girl group’s comeback. They were walking hand in hand, fingers laced together, and Jinyoung couldn’t help but feel like they were meant to be; Daehwi’s hand was so soft against Jinyoung’s firmer ones, and much warmer than Jinyoung’s cooler ones, they were seriously made for each other.

When they reached the end of the path, unlike coming face to face with a beautiful pond, they came face to face with a giant dumpster.

“Hyung… did you lead us to a dumpster?” Daehwi asked, staring at how big it was.

“Wait this wasn’t supposed to happen.” Jinyoung quickly brought out his phone to look at the picture again. Daehwi peered over Jinyoung’s shoulder to get a look at what the other was looking at.

“Hyung, the path that you highlighted is towards the right, why did you insist on choosing the one that was towards the left?”

Jinyoung looked down at his hands, trying to differentiate left from right again, realizing that completely mixed the two up. He stared at his hands as if they betrayed him. “I’m so sorry Daehwi,” he mumbled, visibly slumping in his spot. “I just wasted like 20 minutes of your time leading you the exact opposite direction when I should’ve just double checked my map before being confident and now I just look dumb and useless.”

Daehwi grabbed onto Jinyoung’s arm, hugging it, trying to cheer the older up. “It’s okay hyung! We can walk the other way, I don’t mind! A little exercise wouldn’t hurt, and anyways, I like spending time with you no matter what we’re doing.” Daehwi put on a smile and ran in place to show that he meant every single word.

Jinyoung laughed, using his free hand to ruffle Daehwi’s hair. “Thanks Daehwi, you’re so sweet, you never fail to cheer me up.”

Daehwi smiled even brighter, “I’m your personal charger remember? Without me you would just be bumming on the bed all day.”

Jinyoung sighed, “you’re right, let’s go!” And they set off again. Daehwi, still clinging onto Jinyoung’s arm, changing the subject to ranting about the next popular boy group’s comeback, Daehwi’s voice soothing Jinyoung’s previous stress. They made it to the previous fork in the road, Daehwi looked up at Jinyoung giving him a smile.

“Which way are we going THIS time hyung?” He teased, reaching his hand up to smooth the forehead wrinkles that Daehwi caused with his teasing.

“Shut up Daehwi I have it figured out this time.” Jinyoung answered with a pout. He stared at the two paths before deciding to pull out his phone again and check the map. Daehwi let out a laugh, before he could open his mouth, Jinyoung stuffed his phone back into his jacket pocket and grabbed onto Daehwi’s wrist to drag him to the correct path. Daehwi still laughed but decided to give Jinyoung a break with his teasing.

After twenty more minutes of walking, they FINALLY reached the pond that Jinyoung had wanted to bring him to. It was getting colder out so they both huddled together even more closely. When the two properly stopped to look at the pond, Jinyoung felt like he almost forgot to breath. The pictures didn’t do the pond justice. There were willow trees surrounding the pond, casting beautiful shadows, and everything was lit with the fireflies, no artificial light was present, just the light from the moon and the fireflies was enough to create a view that could be taken in by their eyes. They were so isolated from society over here, no sounds of cars could be heard, just the gentle rippling of the pond and stray noises that bugs made. They both stayed still for a couple of minutes until Jinyoung felt Daehwi shift around his arm.

“Wow, hyung, this is beautiful.” Daehwi finally said. “This was definitely worth the walk.”

Jinyoung smiled, thankful that Daehwi actually liked it. Jinyoung really liked the scene too, it was something that he had never experienced before. He’s never experienced being this far away from the sound of other people or cars, it was amazing.

“I’m really glad I got to experience this with you,” Jinyoung said, voice cutting through the serene silence. Daehwi smiled and snuggled closer into Jinyoung, searching for comfort and warmth. Jinyoung leaned his cheek against Daehwi’s head. After a little bit,  Daehwi took out his phone to take pictures of the scenery, he also turned the camera towards Jinyoung to get some candid pictures of him, as well as some cute selfies of them both together.

“You better send these to me later on,” Jinyoung said over Daehwi’s shoulder as they both were bent down looking at Daehwi’s phone to see the pictures. Daehwi quickly turned his head around to press a kiss on Jinyoung’s cheek.

“Of course I will hyung,” he said cheekily, with a sneaky grin on.

Jinyoung retaliated by poking Daehwi’s side, causing the younger to yelp and tried to run away. Jinyoung laughed and began chasing him, the two of them ran around the grass. Jinyoung grabbed Daehwi from behind and twirled the two of them around. He set Daehwi back onto the ground and they both stared at each other with big dopey grins on.

Daehwi’s face was beautifully lit by the natural lighting, Jinyoung thought he looked absolutely ethereal. “You look so beautiful right now,” Jinyoung said, not even realizing that he said it out loud until he saw a red hue appear on Daehwi’s face.

Daehwi looked down, embarrassed. “If anyone looks beautiful right now hyung, it’s you. The light casts really pretty shadows on your face,” He mumbled.

Jinyoung grabbed Daehwi’s chin to make the younger look up at him. They both stayed silent for a moment, just staring into each other’s eyes, before Jinyoung leaned in to kiss Daehwi. Jinyoung felt himself melt as he felt Daehwi’s lips on his, so soft, they felt perfect against Jinyoung’s, and they tasted so sweet, like nothing that Jinyoung had tasted before.

When they finally pulled away at each other, Daehwi looked up at Jinyoung with a dazed look, cheeks still flushed, Jinyoung looked at him with an amused smile on his face, hands still cupping Daehwi’s cheeks.

“Hyung, you’re very daring,” Daehwi said, looking embarrassed, away from Jinyoung’s eyes.

“Doesn’t it make sense that I would be daring with you, my boyfriend?” Jinyoung asked, trying to catch Daehwi’s eyes.

“Aish hyung, don’t be embarrassing,” Daehwi scoffed, trying to push Jinyoung away, but not really meaning it, if the smile on his face was anything to go by. Jinyoung smiled back and wrapped Daehwi up in a hug, Daehwi instinctually leaning into it. “I’m really glad we got to spend time together today like this hyung.”

“I’m really glad too, I hope this isn’t the last time we do this.” Jinyoung said.

“Hyung don’t think like that!” Daehwi exclaimed, looking up at Jinyoung.

Jinyoung shrugged above Daehwi. “I’m just being honest, if I don’t make it into the top 11, who knows how everything will end up.”

“Hyung stop it! We’re both going to end up in the top 11, the national producers know that you belong in there, and if they don’t, I’ll MAKE them know,” Daehwi stated, with a very determined look on his face.

Jinyoung gave him an almost sad smile, since he had absolutely no idea how the future was going to turn out, and just gave Daehwi a kiss on the head a nod. “Okay Daehwi, whatever you say. We should start heading back now, the main entrance door is going to lock in an hour.”

Daehwi wrapped his arms around Jinyoung’s body a little tighter before he let go to just hug onto Jinyoung’s arm again. “Let’s go hyung!”

They made their way towards the entrance of the park, this time definitely going in the right direction, Jinyoung triple checked, and then got onto a taxi to go back to the dorms. Daehwi fell asleep in the taxi, cuddling against Jinyoung to stay warm, thankfully the taxi driver didn’t say anything, just peeked at Jinyoung from time to time and giving a small smile.

They were dropped off a block away from the dorms, Jinyoung didn’t want to be too obvious. After Jinyoung paid the driver and managed to get Daehwi out of the “nice, warm, and comfortable” seat, the driver turned to them and went, “You two are cute together, stay safe, it’s a scary world out there.”

Jinyoung and Daehwi exchanged confused glances but gave the driver a nod before awkwardly waving good bye. On their way home, because of how tired the they both were, they stayed silent. Jinyoung debated on how to end their date. _Should I bring Daehwi to his dorm and then go back to my dorm? Daehwi would end up coming back to my room anyways to sleep. Should I just drop Daehwi off at his room, pretend I need to do something AND THEN come back? No that’s just way too extra._

“I can feel you thinking from over here, your small head doesn’t hide the fact that your brain is working hard very well,” Daehwi joked, noticing how concentrated Jinyoung looked.

He laughed, trying to hide the fact that he had no idea how to end the date. “It wasn’t anything important, don’t worry.”

Daehwi nodded, “Sure hyung. I bet that you’re thinking about something stupid and unnecessary, like how to end this date or something.”

Jinyoung’s eyes almost popped out of his head because of how surprised he was. He gave out a nervous laugh while using the hand that wasn’t being hugged by Daehwi to rub the back of his neck to feign nonchalance. “What? No that’s dumb, why would I think about that.”

Daehwi sent a knowing smirk up at Jinyoung. “Hyung don’t be stupid I know that’s EXACTLY what you were thinking of. Only you would freak out about something like that. You shouldn’t worry about it, I’m going to end up sleeping with you anyways, think of the date as if it’s never going to end. You have to stick with me forever!” He joked.

Jinyoung removed his arm from Daehwi’s hold so he could wrap his arm around the younger’s shoulders. “Have I ever told you that you’re the most adorable person in the world?”

Daehwi returned the side hug by wrapping his arms around Jinyoung’s torso. “Don’t worry hyung, I KNOW I’m the most adorable person in the world. That’s how I got the most handsome person in the world right?”

Jinyoung immediately blushed. “Wh-what are you talking about? Don’t be stupid Daehwi.”

Daehwi leaned away to tell Jinyoung off. “Hyung, literally all 101 trainees, or 98, technicalities, whatever. Anyways! They ALL think you’re extremely handsome, you stop everybody from whatever they’re doing when you enter the room. The only reason why it doesn’t feel like it is because we’ve been around you for a couple of weeks so your effect isn’t as strong anymore, but trust me, internally, everybody stops to admire you whenever you’re there.”

Jinyoung didn’t think he could blush any harder than he already was, but his body surprised him. “O-okay, I hear you, just do-don’t be like that again.:

Daehwi gave a smile of satisfaction. “I won’t stop complimenting you until you forcefully stop me.”

Jinyoung sighed in defeat, but it wasn’t like he minded at all.

 

They ended up finishing the date by sleeping in each other's arms on Jinyoung's bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They finally went on a date, the two cuties deserve it for all the hard work that they do  
> I hope I did the date justice, I feel like i got lazy and started rushing towards the end but if you guys enjoyed it then that's all that matters! :D


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SO SORRY IT'S BEEN A MONTH BUT I'VE HAD LIKE TWO MIDTERMS EVERY WEEK THIS MONTH  
> I HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS CHAPTER

All the trainees were lined up outside of the “secret reveals” room. Jinyoung and Daehwi got on line together, excited to reveal secrets about the other trainees. Jinyoung was planning on talking about how Jihoon wore his bright shoelaces not because he wanted to stand out and make a fashion statement, but because he once accidentally washed them with highlighters (don’t ask how those got in there, that’s a completely different story) and his mom got so mad at him that she vowed to never buy him a new pair of shoelaces again. Jinyoung told Daehwi his plan and made the younger laugh out loud. He tried asking Daehwi what he would say but Daehwi just gave him a sneaky looking grin before going “you’ll see during the broadcast hyung.” Jinyoung didn’t really like the feeling of the grin but he decided to let it go since it was probably all in good fun, but little did he know that he would be hearing about what Daehwi was going to say sooner than the broadcast.

“So before we get to what you want to reveal, we wanted to ask you about something another trainee revealed.” The staff said when Jinyoung got in front of the camera. Jinyoung immediately stiffened and tried to recall any dirt that another trainee may have on him. Was his habit of mumbling in his sleep that good to reveal in this room? Or what if Jihoon revealed to everyone that he spends an extra long time in the shower to practice his vocals because the steam and acoustics of the shower helped his voice (it was clearly a better practice place, he didn’t understand why the other members thought it was funny).The staff member continued, “A trainee revealed that you have extremely high insoles, can you show us?”

Jinyoung immediately paled. None of the trainees should’ve known about that… none of them except… Daehwi.

_“Awww, does my little boyfriend need to wear insoles in order to reach my shoulders?” Jinyoung cooed, seeing Daehwi’s insole slip out of his shoe as he took them off._

_“Shut up hyung, I know I’m on the shorter side, but I’m still growing! Who knows, maybe I’ll end up taller than you.” Daehwi huffed, even though they both knew that was never going to happen._

_Jinyoung wrapped Daehwi up in a hug. “I’ll let you in on a secret.” Jinyoung decided it was okay for Daehwi to know about his insoles, afterall, what trainee in 2017 didn’t wear insoles? Besides the super tall and blessed trainees. Daehwi looked up at Jinyoung, eyes bright, eager to hear gossip. “I wear insoles too.”_

_Jinyoung immediately regretted telling Daehwi as he jumped out of Jinyoung’s arms. “WHAT?!? How tall are they??”_

_Jinyoung sighed. “Here I’ll show you.” He took out an insole, revealing a 3 cm insole hiding in his shoe._

_“Oh my god hyung they’re so tall, no wonder sometimes I can hook my chin over your shoulders and sometimes I can’t,” Daehwi stated, looking smug._

_Jinyoung smacked Daehwi’s arm lightly. “You better not tell anyone else about this or else…”_

_“Or else what?” Daehwi teased._

_Jinyoung thought of the worst thing he could think of without inflicting pain on the younger. “Or else I won’t let you on my bed for three days.”_

_Daehwi gasped. “Hyung, you wouldn’t dare!”_

_“Try me.”_

Try Daehwi did, because now Jinyoung had to explain his insole situation on national television.

“I can’t believe he revealed this, my insoles aren’t THAT bad…” Jinyoung said as he took off his show to show his insole. He tried to squeeze them together as best as he could to make it seem like they were less than 3 cm, but the staff just HAD to point out the fact that he was trying to hide it. Jinyoung couldn’t escape. He probably wouldn’t even be able to reveal Jihoon’s stupid shoelaces because of this. _Thanks Daehwi_ , he thought dryly.

 

That night, Jinyoung felt Daehwi climb into his bed while he was already on it, he made sure to spread him out on the bed as far as possible so that Daehwi wouldn’t be able to get on.

“Hyung, what are you doing??” Daehwi asked, giggling a little, struggling to figure out where to go on the bed.

“You’re not allowed to sleep here tonight. Or tomorrow night. Or the night after that.” Jinyoung said, still peeved about what happened.

“But why hyung?? I didn’t do anything,” Daehwi pouted. Jinyoung tried to stand his ground, he knew his insole secret was definitely going to get a lot of screen time because that’s just how Mnet plays.

“You know what you did, during that secret segment. Think about it.” Jinyoung said, turning his head so that he wouldn’t need to look at Daehwi. He saw Daehwi reveal a shocked face as he turned his head, so he knew the younger knew exactly what he did.

“The insole thing?? You can’t be serious hyung, we always sleep together! C’mon hyung, it doesn’t matter that you wear insoles anyways, you said it yourself right??” Daehwi asked frantically, trying to push Jinyoung over, realizing that the older was taking the threat seriously.

Jinyoung didn’t move. He knew he was frail, but Daehwi was even smaller so it didn’t matter.

“Hyunggg… I’m sorry,” Daehwi said, trying to smother on as much aegyo as possible. Jinyoung felt his heart crumble but he decided that Daehwi should learn to not reveal people’s secrets when they tell them not to, and ESPECIALLY not on national television. He’ll try to give Daehwi the cold shoulder for just one night, he probably wouldn’t last without sleeping without Daehwi either, so just one night would suffice, right?

 

Jinyoung was very wrong. In the middle of the night, he woke up, feeling cold without his own personal heater next to him keeping him warm. He tried to go back to sleep by singing all the concept evaluation songs from beginning to end, counting to 100, everything, but nothing worked. He knew what he was missing, he hated to admit it, but he needed to be with Daehwi to sleep. He sat up in his bed and got into his slippers. He heard Jihoon stir awake in his top bunk.

“What are you doing up?” Jihoon asked, barely awake.

“Don’t worry about it hyung, go back to sleep,” Jinyoung replied. Jihoon didn’t need to be told twice as he flopped back onto his pillow to embrace sleep again.

He shuffled his way out of the dorm room and into the hall. Two doors down, he knew Daehwi would be on the bottom right bunk. As quietly as he could, Jinyoung made his way into the room and slowly found Daehwi’s bed. In the dim light from the streetlamp outside of their window, he could make out Daehwi’s fluffy hair. He slowly crawled into Daehwi’s bed, trying not to wake him, but it didn’t work because Daehwi was already awake to begin with.

“Idiot hyung, this is how it should’ve been since the beginning, I couldn’t sleep at all without you,” Daehwi said, pouting, even if it was dark, Jinyoung could hear it in his voice.

They immediately settled in bed together like puzzle pieces, it really didn’t feel right if they weren’t sleeping together, Jinyoung thought. “I’m sorry for revealing your secret in front of everybody, but they were also making fun of my height, so I couldn’t suffer alone right? That’s what couples do!” Daehwi’s voice cut in the dark.

Jinyoung laughed, heart immediately softening. “Don’t worry about it anymore, Daehwi-ah, just sleep.” They immediately fell asleep together.

 

Jinyoung woke up to find Daehwi snuggled up under his head against his chest. Jinyoung gave a smile and wrapped his arms around Daehwi a little tighter, which made Daehwi start to wake up.

“Hyung?” Daehwi asked, voice extremely raspy from just waking up, eyes still closed.

“Yes Daehwi?” Jinyoung whispered back, trying to keep it quiet for the other guys in the room to keep on sleeping.

“Today’s the last elimination before we become the final group right?”

Jinyoung’s heart stopped for a second, the entire show felt all too fast, he wasn’t ready for it to end just yet. He needed to give a reply to Daehwi. “Yeah.”

Daehwi finally opened his eyes to give Jinyoung a good look. Jinyoung let out a fond look at how cute Daehwi looked in the morning. “Hyung, are you nervous?”

Jinyoung didn’t want to admit being nervous, but Jinyoung always felt safe with Daehwi. “Yeah, I am.”

Daehwi wrapped his arms around Jinyoung to comfort him. “Hyung I’m pretty sure all the national producers will see how hard you worked. Remember how the episode looked when we all watched it together? They made sure to give you a bunch of screen time, you’re going to do so well today, I bet!”

Jinyoung was thankful that Daehwi never failed to help him boost up his confidence. “Are you worried at all Daehwi?”

Jinyoung felt Daehwi stiffen in his arms. He heard a sigh. “I am… but… I believe in the national producers… I think Mnet has been less aggressive about making trainees look evil…”

Jinyoung leaned down to give Daehwi a kiss on his soft hair. “Don’t worry about a thing Daehwi, we’re going to be on that stage together, no matter what.”

Daehwi nodded against Jinyoung’s chest, he got up after a couple more seconds of embracing the warmth of the bed and Jinyoung’s arms. “Okay hyung, we need to get ready for the day now.”

Jinyoung groaned a bit and then got up as well. He started patting his bed hair down, he laughed at Daehwi’s hair, looking more like a bird’s nest than hair. Daehwi pouted. “Are you making fun of my bed hair??”

Jinyoung tried not to laugh even harder. “No no, of course not. Let’s just get ready.”

They both made their way to the bathroom and washed each other’s faces. They laughed as they both rubbed the other’s faces, gliding on the face wash and moisturizing afterwards. They got hold of their uniforms and went to eat a quick breakfast. When they finished, they went down to the backstage area to get makeup done for the elimination.

Daehwi went off to his Brand New Music friends to check up on them while Jinyoung hung around Jihoon.

“Today’s our last elimination before we figure out who’s the top 11.” Jihoon said, as he was getting his hair styled. The stylist gave an annoyed look at Jihoon for moving around to talk but didn’t say anything out loud, Jinyoung tried to conceal a laugh.

“Yep. Where do you think you’ll be?”

“I don’t know, national producers are always fickle. Let’s hope I stay in the top 4.” Jihoon replied.

Jinyoung let out a snort. “You have nothing to worry about, you’ve been in the top 3 for the longest time, you’ll definitely stay there. I can’t really imagine the rankings changing too much since it hasn’t been too long since the last elimination.”

Jihoon gave a slow nod, which ended up annoying the stylist a little more. “That’s true… where do you think you’ll end up?”

Jinyoung gave a shrug. “Probably 11th or 12th place, like I’ve always been.”

Jihoon flung his arms to his side to try and smack Jinyoung without moving too much to appease the stylist. Jinyoung jumped out of the way to avoid Jihoon’s smack. “You’re probably moving up, national producers like an underdog. The mentors complimented you a lot last episode.”

Jinyoung didn’t really believe Jihoon’s words but he gave a nod to satisfy Jihoon. They both chose to talk about how they were going to enter the stage, since they wanted to match again. They decided on doing the cheesiest lip bite they could muster while pulling on their suit jackets to emphasize how “manly” they were.

All of the trainees made their way to their seats, Jinyoung sitting next to Guanlin. They both chatted idly about how the staffs casually mentioned that there might not be 22 trainees for this elimination. They also joked about possible predictions.

“I bet you’re gonna get 1st place this time, Linnie,” Jinyoung said, nudging Guanlin’s side with his elbow.

Guanlin laughed with his usual gummy smile. “Nah, don’t say that hyung. I just hope I stay in the top 11. I bet you’ll move up a bunch.” He wrapped an arm around Jinyoung’s shoulder, squeezing his arm for support.

Jinyoung tried to shrug off Guanlin’s arm. “Respect your elders, I hope I can be in the top 11 for once in my life.”

Guanlin patted Jinyoung’s head lightly, trying not to mess up his styled hair. “I believe in you hyung.”

The eliminations started, and the tense environment of the room came back on full force. They listened closely to BoA explaining that they would only have 20 trainees making it to the live stage. Jinyoung tried not to show a visceral outwards reaction to the news, afraid that he would get some unwanted screen time, but it seriously felt unfair. Why have 20 trainees instead of 22? The final group would be eleven right? Having 22 would be good practice for the future, Jinyoung didn’t like it.

The rankings began, Jinyoung kept track of his _Oh Little Girl_ teammates, glad that Sewoon, Minki and Hyungseob were able to make the live stage. Jinyoung felt himself hold his breath during the 11 th rank. He prayed it would be him, that he would be able to get into the top 11. If he didn’t get the 11th rank, he didn’t think he would be able to make the live stage at all. The last ranking reveal showed him that he was 12th place, he couldn’t have moved too much. He held his breath as BoA stalled to announce who was 11th.

“Pledis Entertainment’s Hwang Minhyun!”

Jinyoung jumped out of his seat, glad that his favorite hyung made it to the live stage, but also just in shock that it wasn’t him. He caught eyes with Minhyun and shouted, “Good job hyung!!” Minhyun gave him a nod of thanks.

Jinyoung sat back down and whispered to Guanlin, “That was so unexpected.”

“I told you hyung, you’ve definitely moved up, don’t worry.”

Jinyoung waved his hand, dismissing Guanlin’s words. “Noo, I’m probably 10th place, stop doing that.” He didn’t notice Guanlin roll his eyes.

Guanlin and Jinyoung waited in anticipation as they saw BoA’s mouth open to announce who got 10th place. Jinyoung was pretty sure that Guanlin could feel his nervousness radiating off of him, along with all of the other trainees around them.

“Brand New Music’s Lee Daehwi!!”

Jinyoung stood up in shock, he couldn’t believe his ears. Daehwi got 10th place?? He tried to crane his neck to get a better view of Daehwi as he was being hugged by his fellow Brand New Music trainees. Jinyoung clapped and shouted extra loudly to try and get the younger’s attention. As Daehwi walked towards the stage, Daehwi threw Jinyoung a peace sign, Jinyoung sat back down with a big smile on his face, feeling jittery and excited for Daehwi. He sent multiple thumbs up to Daehwi, it got so unbearable to the trainees around Jinyoung that Moonbok turned to him to calm him down.

“You gotta quiet down for Daehwi’s speech, Jinyoung,” Moonbok said, tapping Jinyoung’s arm to try and grab his attention.

Jinyoun took some deep breaths, trying to calm himself down. Daehwi gave a wink in Jinyoung’s direction, his previous deep breaths were useless because a newfound excitement washed over him. He listened to Daehwi’s speech, listened to him thank the national producers.

“Oh my goodness, so cute!” Jinyoung said in his seat, Guanlin tugged on Jinyoung’s uniform jacket to calm him down.

Jinyoung listened to Daehwi continued, but began feeling down when he heard Daehwi talking about trying to regain his previous image and look better for the national producers. He tried his best not to whine at Daehwi’s words from his seat, but he didn’t do a very good job of concealing his pout. He needed to be better and assure Daehwi more about how beautiful he actually is. Once Daehwi was done, Jinyoung shouted loudly to show Daehwi his support, he saw Daehwi let out a shy smile, making Jinyoun want to yell more. Daehwi ran up to his seat, giving hugs to other trainees on the way, and plopped onto his plush 10th place seat. Jinyoung kept giving Daehwi thumbs ups, and Daehwi posed with his forefinger and thumb around his chin, which Jinyoung found incredibly adorable. He stayed excited the entire time, adrenaline from Daehwi making it to the live stage taking over him, pushing down his initial anxiety of being called. Jinyoung’s excitement was heightened up again when Jisung made it to the live stage. He saw Jisung crying again, which was endearing. If anyone deserved to be in the top 11, it was Jisung. The rankings kept going on, Jinyoung hadn’t even realized that they already reached the top 4 and he still wasn’t called.

Guanlin looked at him with a smug smile. “I knew you were going to be in the top 4.”

The cameras haven’t filmed the top 4 yet, so technically they didn’t know for sure who was going to be in the top 4. All the trainees waited in anticipation for the video to pop up on the screens. The tension was building up, Jinyoung could feel the feeling of throwing up rising in his throat. He gripped his chair, he was pretty sure he ended up just not making the live stage, afterall, he has remained at 12th place for an extremely long time right? It would take a miracle for him to jump up the rankings at this point.

In the middle of his thoughts, the screens suddenly lit up. Jinyoung’s eyes refocused to the new light from the screens and went from left to right: Jihoon, Daniel, Sungwoon and him?? Why was this happening? Jinyoung couldn’t even believe Sungwoon was in the top 4, much less himself. He moved back and forth to make sure it was actually him who made it into the top 4 and not Guanlin, they were sitting together after all, but miraculously, the camera kept following him around. He didn’t even know how to feel about what happened to Guanlin. He tried to calm Guanlin down, feeling how frozen the younger was next to him.

“Linnie, you could be in 20th place, it’s okay, take deep breaths,” Jinyoung said, trying to calm him down by rubbing his back. He felt Guanlin was still stiff under his hand, he could barely even feel him breath.

Jinyoung tried to compose himself for when he would eventually need to talk about his feelings for getting in the top 4. He felt the camera on him the entire time, even before the talk, just to measure his reactions. He tried to keep himself as calm as possible, tried not to shake too much.

BoA called him up to ask him about how it felt to be in the top 4, Jinyoung tried not to jump up too visibly as he held the mic in his trembling hands to speak. He couldn’t even remember what he said, probably something about never being in the top 11 so it felt good to be in the top 4, he was more focused on making sure his legs didn’t shake too much, making him fall onto Guanlin.

The tension in the room was stiffening as they waited for who would be called up for 4th place. Jinyoung hoped it was him, any higher and the pressure would be too much on his back. He could feel all the eyes from the already confirmed trainees on him, as well as all the cameras. He hated the feeling, it made his skin crawl. He was too afraid to lift his head up, in fear that the cameras would catch something weird and make a big deal out of it, so he kept looking at his legs as he fidgeted with his fingers.

“C9 Entertainment’s Bae Jinyoung!”

Jinyoung jumped up, incredibly relieved, the tension from his body completely gone. Trainees around him stood up to congratulate him, Jihoon sending him a supportive look from across the seats. He gave Guanlin a big hug, whispering in his ear not to worry, national producers will watch over him, as a final effort to calm him down before he went up to the stage.

He said his obligatory thank you’s, but this time with more emotion. He never imagined himself ever reaching such a high point in the rankings, he was genuinely thankful to have been able to experience such a rank. He was prepared to go up to his seat when he finished his speech, but BoA decided to throw a curveball at him.

“Can you show us some aegyo like you did in your introductory video??”

Jinyoung felt his heart drop. He heard snickering from behind him and in front of him, they all remembered his cringy introduction video of him dancing in traditional clothing and trying to get the national producers to like him by being “quirky” and “cute”. Jinyoung didn’t appreciate BoA bringing it back to the forefront.

“Uh… I guess I can try,” he said, timidly. Little did he know, behind him, Daehwi had his hands up to his eyes making binoculars to get a “better” view of Jinyoung’s aegyo.

Jinyoung struggled internally about what he should actually do, he decided to just do the same tongue clicking thing he came up with from his introduction video. Hopefully the national producers would like it. He clicked his tongue loudly and shot his arms out in fingergun motions to be extra cute while moving his head back and forth. He heard all of the trainees laugh and coo teasingly at how cute he was. Jinyoung put his head down and ran towards his seat. He couldn’t believe how high he had to climb to get to his chair, it was amazing, honestly. Other trainees reached out to give him a high five as he walked by them, while Daehwi stood up to give him a hug before he sat in his seat. He sat in his seat, feeling accomplished that this show had allowed him to show his talents, and have his talents be recognized.

The rest of the eliminations ended with many tears. The shock from Sungwoon receiving 3rd place was still extremely prominent. He was glad that Guanlin was able to snag the 20th seat, but he also hated seeing the other 15 trainees end their journey on Produce 101. Many of his old teammates were in the group of leaving trainees, leaving Jinyoung feel quite regretful that he even made it this far.

All of the trainees were released after the filming, Jinyoung automatically sought out for Daehwi, not wanting to be alone with his thoughts after the show. He saw Daehwi walking ahead of him, so he ran up behind him and lightly held onto his wrist. Daehwi was clearly startled by the sudden touch, but when he saw Jinyoung behind him, he immediately relaxed and gave a small smile. He was clearly still sad and shaken up, especially because his labelmate had to be sent home. Jinyoung immediately noticed and decided to (smoothly) slide his down from Daehwi’s wrist to interlock their fingers. He dragged Daehwi to a practice room so that they would be able to spend time together uninterrupted. Nobody should be practicing now, especially right after an elimination.

They both sat on the ground, Daehwi automatically sitting on top of Jinyoung and grabbing the older’s arms and wrapping them around him. They both stayed silent for a second, not knowing what exactly to say, where to start off, Jinyoung nuzzled his face in Daehwi’s soft hair.

Daehwi finally opened his mouth to speak, more like scream. “I’M SO PROUD OF YOU GETTING FOURTH PLACE HYUNG!!” He jumped in Jinyoung’s arms, effectively crushing Jinyoung’s legs (not that it hurt since Daehwi was as light as a feather). He was definitely dazed after hearing Daehwi’s voice.

“Woah Daehwi, thanks, not only for being happy for me but also for making me deaf,” Jinyoung replied, rubbing his ears to emphasize how loud he thought Daehwi was.

Daehwi laughed, swivling his body around on Jinyoung’s lap to wrap his arms around Jinyoung’s neck, he snuggled his head in the crook of Jinyoung’s neck. “All jokes aside, I’m still really proud of you, you deserve it for all the hard work you’ve done, I’m glad all of the national producers finally recognized your hard work. You better not feel down on yourself thinking you don’t deserve it or something, because I know you would do something dumb like that.” He reached up to poke Jinyoung’s forehead to smooth out Jinyoung’s wrinkles.

Jinyoung let out a small smile, Daehwi was always so in tune with Jinyoung. “How do you always know what I’m thinking?”

Daehwi looked up into Jinyoung’s eyes. “Because I love you.”

Jinyoung immediately felt a surge of warmth spread throughout his body, seeing the affection in those two deep, brown eyes. The two of them had never said the big four-letter word, but deep down the two of them knew that they both felt the same. Jinyoung never really knew how to label the feeling he had for Daehwi, but he knew now that it was love, but he never said it out loud, and yet, right now, it all suddenly made sense.

“I love you too, Daehwi,” Jinyoung said with a small smile. He saw Daehwi’s lips part slightly in surprise. Jinyoung took the opportunity to steal those lips and give him a kiss. Jinyoung knew he would never get tired of kissing Daehwi, and he was glad that they could share a quiet moment together like this, just the two of them in the quiet practice room with no interrup-

“What are you two hiding in here for?” Jisung swung open the door. Daehwi immediately yelped and raised his arms to cover his view of Jisung, as if that would make them invisible to Jisung. Jinyoung immediately removed his arms around Daehwi, like that would help them not seem as obvious.

Jisung gasped out loud, making his classic shocked face that everyone seemed to love and imitate. “JINYOUNG WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME YOU AND DAEHWI GOT TOGETHER???”

Jinyoung hung his head low, trying not to make direct eye-contact with Jisung. It wasn’t like he wanted to hide that they were together, but there was just never time to tell him?? Jinyoung felt a little guilty, but then again, it wasn’t his fault their schedules were out to make it seem like they didn’t have time to talk.

“Surprise, hyung,” Jinyoung said, holding his hands out with a cheesy smile on his face in attempt to make Jisung laugh. It didn’t really work out, Jisung still had his arms crossed, a pout very clearly still on his face. Daehwi still hadn’t moved from his position of hiding (poorly) behind his own arms in an attempt to hide away from Jisung.

“Daehwi stop doing that, I can clearly see you.” Jisung snapped, Daehwi yelped for being called out and returned to a normal position. Jisung closed the door and plopped on the ground next to them, “I can’t believe you didn’t tell your most beloved hyung that you two got together.”

Jinyoung let out an evil grin, “but I did tell my most beloved hyung, Minhyun-hyung!”

Jisung gasped in shock and started assaulting Jinyoung’s arm with small punches. Daehwi laughed loudly as Jinyoung shouted in an attempt to get away from him. “STOP HYUNG I’M SORRY I DIDN’T MEAN IT!”

Jisung scoffed. “That’s what I thought! You better not try to go against your hyung like this again. Now explain yourselves, children!”

Daehwi immediately sat up straight, loving to retell the story of how Jinyoung confessed to Daehwi. Jinyoung sighed, shaking his head into his hand. He could hear Jisung and Daehwi laughing, but being able to hear Daehwi’s voice and laugh made everything better, and Jinyoung wouldn’t have it any other way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think we're coming towards the end of the story, one chapter left, two at most, which makes me kind of sad :( but I hope you guys have been enjoying the ride so far!  
> (Sorry again for making you guys wait so long for this chapter that wasn't even that good)


	13. Chapter 13

Daehwi was sad that he was separated from Jinyoung yet again for their final performance. Daehwi chose _Super Hot_ while Jinyoung chose _Hands On Me_ (Daehwi was a little too excited to see Jinyoung’s performance for that). He really wanted to have their final stage be together, in case if one of them didn’t make it into the top 11 (he didn’t want to think negatively like that but he couldn’t help it). He remembered the conversation the two of them had after choosing their songs.

_They were both in a vocal practice room to avoid the other trainees, Daehwi in Jinyoung’s arms. Daehwi turned in Jinyoung’s arms to face him. He poked Jinyoung’s chest hard. “Hyungie, why couldn’t we be in the same group for our last performance??”_

_Jinyoung looked down to face him, “I was already in a cute concept from the concept evaluations, I didn’t want to do it again.” He pouted._

_Daehwi pouted back, but still nodded. “It makes sense… but I’m going to complain about it. And also, why do you have to be on the same team as Jihoon??”_

_Jinyoung laughed, pulling Daehwi closer to him. Daehwi didn’t want to admit that he was still a little bit jealous of Jihoon, after all he’s much more handsome and talented than Daehwi, but he tried to laugh with the older. Once Jinyoung finished laughing, he opened his mouth to talk. “I could say the same thing about you and Samuel, right??”_

_Daehwi stalled, reeling from Jinyoung’s sudden statement. “I guess… you’re right…”_

_Jinyoung laughed again, nuzzling his face into Daehwi’s hair. Daehwi still wasn’t satisfied. “I know you’re not going to like hearing this, but… what if this is the last time we’re performing on the same stage?”_

_He felt Jinyoung stiffen and stop rubbing his face in Daehwi’s hair. “Daehwi…”_

_Daehwi sighed, turning in Jinyoung lap to face the older a little better. “I know I shouldn’t be pessimistic, but there’s a chance that it could happen… right?” He looked up at Jinyoung to be met with a gloomy face. “Hyung, I’m sorry I made you mad, I didn’t mean to, but I can’t help to be anxious.”_

_After a couple more seconds of silence, Jinyoung let out a long sigh. “It’s not like it’s just you, I worry about it a lot too, but we just need to make the best of the time we have together now right?”_

_Daehwi nodded slowly, “I-I guess…” He stuck his pinkie finger out. “Promise me we’ll stay happy while we’re together?”_

_Jinyoung gave Daehwi a fond smile, linked their pinkies together, and gave him a kiss on his head. Daehwi knew that it was a pretty unreasonable request, especially since nobody’s ever happy forever. He saw in Jinyoung’s eyes that they both had the same opinions. “I promise that we’ll try our best.”_

Even after their conversation, Daehwi still couldn’t help but be nervous. He decided to try and hide away all of his nervousness by practicing as hard as he could in their performance. He made sure to give his all when they worked on the choreography, making sure to give Samuel as many helpful ideas as he could think of, some of them more helpful than others.

_“Hyung, I think this is a great idea,” Seonho said, an earnest look in his eyes._

_Daehwi gave him a skeptical look back, “Are you sure?”_

_Seonho nodded his head furiously, “Think about it. If we have an outgoing choreography, people are going to remember our faces more during the live show and end up voting for us no matter what.”_

_Daehwi thought about the idea. Sure, rubbing each other’s butt in their dancing and pressing on Seonho’s head to reach the high note would look just a little weird, but it would definitely make an impact. Daehwi knew that Samuel wouldn’t agree with it, but he didn’t want to discourage the younger; he decided to entertain Seonho’s idea and gave a nod, “I like that mindset, let’s suggest it to Samuel.”_

_They ran up to Samuel with confidence and performed their idea, but rather than the applause of approval they thought they would get, they got a confused look._

_Seonho was the first to ask how it was, “S-so, what did you think?”_

_Daehwi decided to be a good friend and back up Seonho. “We thought making the choreography like this would help us stand out, what do you think??”_

_It was clear that Samuel was not feeling their dance, he tilted his head and sucked in a breath. “It’s- uh- it’s definitely interesting, I’ll give it that.”_

_Seonho gave an eager nod, Daehwi knew that his dreams wouldn’t come to fruition, but gave the younger a comforting rub on the back to calm him down. “Yeah, it is really interesting!!” Seonho exclaimed, blinking at him, looking like an excited chick. Seonho may have matured on stage throughout the show, but his personality still showed how he was still a small baby._

_Samuel could see how Daehwi only did it with Seonho because Seonho genuinely wanted to have it in their choreography and felt bad, so he decided to not destroy Seonho’s dream. “Yeah, I’ll definitely keep it in my mind when I work on everything!”_

_Seonho shouted with joy and gave Samuel a hug. “Thanks, you’re the best!” Seonho turned back to Daehwi to give him a hug too. “Thanks for performing the idea with me!”_

_Daehwi gave a nervous chuckle. “Of course Seonho, anything for my precious dongsaeng.” Seonho ran off after, probably going to Guanlin or even all the way to the other team to bother Minhyun. Judging by how they couldn’t hear Seonho’s footsteps anymore, Samuel and Daehwi both guessed that he ran off to bother Minhyun. Poor Minhyun, Daehwi thought, even though he lowkey wanted to go with him to see Jinyoung. He turned towards Samuel again. “Thanks for entertaining his idea for a bit.”_

_Samuel laughed. “Oh thank god you didn’t take it seriously either!”_

_Daehwi let out a laugh. “Oh man, only Seonho could think of a dance like that one. Please don’t include something like that,” Daehwi thought for a bit about the dance. The butt-rubbing was reminiscent of Guanlin and Seonho’s performance of Troublemaker, which could be a good addition. “Although maybe having Seonho and Guanlin remake their Troublemaker performance in our dance might be really funny.”_

_Samuel gave a slow nod at that, “Ya know, I think that would ACTUALLY be a good idea!” He turned to write that on his little paper that he was using to work out the choreography. He turned back around to Daehwi. “What other ideas do you have?? Youngmin suggested a bunch before, all you Brand New Music kids have lots of ideas, Woojin is probably working hard on the ‘Hands on Me’ choreography right now on the other team too right?”_

_Daehwi gave a nod. “We’re all working hard to survive right?”_

_Samuel gave a firm nod. “That’s right.” They both thought to the rest of their members either also coming up with ideas for the dance or working in the vocal rooms to perfect their pitches and harmonization. “I’m glad we’re on this last team together, Daehwi.”_

_Daehwi gave a warm smile back. They began together in ‘Boy in Luv’ and were separated until now, but the two of them made sure to support each other the entire time, from giving each other encouraging words between performances or helping each other work on their performances. “I am too. Let’s keep on working on this choreography, shall we?”_

_Samuel gave a smile. “We shall.”_

 

Produce 101 decided to be nice and give them back their phones for the final weeks of preparation. Daehwi was thankful, he could listen to the song more easily rather than try to snag an MP3 before the other trainees or share the MP3 and practice together in a corner. Since they had their phones back, they could also practice wherever they wanted rather than needing to be in the three practice rooms that had the song on hand. Daehwi decided to grab to grab Jinyoung into a practice room so that they could practice for their center evaluation together.

After a couple of turns discussing how their choreographies were different and which killing parts they needed to practice, Daehwi asked Jinyoung to record his performance, since they could do that now with their phones, for the center audition. Daehwi was more nervous about practicing than he normally was, probably because he was in front of Jinyoung. After the part ended, Daehwi scurried over the Jinyoung to sit down next to him and lace their arms together.

“What did you think of my performance?” He asked, leaning into Jinyoung’s shoulder.

“I was so focused on holding my phone steady that I didn’t pay super close attention,” Jinyoung replied, smiling sheepishly. Daehwi giggled and lightly punched Jinyoung’s chest, making Jinyoung elicit an exaggerated reaction. “BUT from now I could tell, you looked great, as you always do. Who made the choreography?”

“Muel made it, but we all pitched in to help out. I don’t think the parts that I suggested were in the center part, but yeah, we all helped to make it,” Daehwi replied.

Jinyoung nodded slowly, “Shame they didn’t put your parts in the center part.”

Daehwi shook his head, “It’s okay, I’m pretty sure it’s better this way.”

Jinyoung sucked in a breath, “For some reason I don’t believe that, but okay. Do you want to see your recording now?”

Daehwi leaned in more, nuzzling his head in Jinyoung’s chest. “Yeah, gotta fix whatever I need to fix as soon as possible.”

“I’m pretty sure there was none of that, but if you say so.” Jinyoung unlocked his phone and went into his photos, rather than being met immediately with the video, they were met with at least 100 of Jinyoung’s old selfies. Jinyoung instinctively locked his phone in embarrassment. “Daehwi, I promise you I’m not THAT self-absorbed.”

Daehwi laughed. “It’s okay, you’re beautiful, how could you NOT take hundreds of selfies?” He really enjoyed the pink blush that appeared on Jinyoung’s face. He felt Jinyoung use his shoulder to shift Daehwi’s head.

“Stop that, I’m just going to find the video.” Jinyoung scoffed, trying to find the video again.

“How old are these selfies anyways? We’ve been here for almost three months, do these count as predebut photos??” Daehwi asked.

“Don’t all of my photos count as predebut photos? And if I end up not debuting, then all of my photos are just ‘Bae Jinyoung, that one trainee who was on Produce 101 for a while,’ photos.” Jinyoung replied, as he found the video.

Daehwi scoffed at Jinyoung’s statement as he settled down to watch his video. He thought it was pretty good, his voice could have been more stable, but his actual dance had a lot of impact, which was important for choosing the center. Daehwi nodded as Jinyoung stared at the video with wide eyes.

“Even though I watched it in person, it’s still amazing to watch on video, you’re too good Daehwi-ah,” Jinyoung complimented, combing his fingers through Daehwi’s hair, not caring that it was a little sweaty.

Daehwi giggled and pushed at Jinyoung’s chest, “Flattery will get you everywhere, hyung.”

“I know,” he replied with a smug smile. Daehwi got up to do run through the center part again, but didn’t fail to notice the shuttering of the camera coming from Jinyoung’s phone.

“Why are you taking pictures of me hyung?” Daehwi asked, slightly embarrassed.

Jinyoung gave Daehwi a warm smile, “I should start taking pictures of other beautiful things besides myself, right?”

Daehwi flushed bright red. “How am I supposed to practice when you say things like that hyung?!”

“It’s okay, you’ve been practicing for a couple hours now, take a break!” He said laughing, opening his arms up for Daehwi to jump into, which the younger gladly did.

“I love you hyung,” Daehwi mumbled, face in Jinyoung’s shirt.

Jinyoung stroked Daehwi’s head, “I love you too.”

 

Daehwi was excited, they were going into the recording booth to learn the song that would end the show, the one to represent all of the emotions from the show, with each other, with national producers, with their mentors, everyone. Daehwi was mostly excited because he and Jinyoung would actually be in one final performance together. The one with the most meaning.

When they arrived at the recording studio, Jinyoung and Daehwi were able to sit together behind Dongho and Seongwoo, two bigger trainees, so they could hide well. All the trainees listened to the song together, and even though the song was meant to be for National Producers, as they read through the lyrics, Daehwi couldn’t help but feel the song was written for the two of them, and based on the comforting hand that Jinyoung laid on Daehwi’s leg, it seemed like the older felt the same as well.

The producers wanted each member to sing the chorus by themselves, so Jinyoung and Daehwi watched as they went down the rows, from Youngmin to them. Daehwi sang it without a fault, his unique voice giving the song an even sweeter tone to it. When he saw Jinyoung stand up next to him, he could see the tension in the way the older gripped onto the paper.

Daehwi knew Jinyoung’s confidence was always low, he gave a comforting pat to the back of Jinyoung’s thigh as the background music started. Jinyoung’s voice matched the song perfectly, even if his voice was a little dry from not being used. As his voice warmed up, he warmed up the song as well. He saw Jinyoung keep his head down, a habit that he was trying to get rid of, but since he needed the lyrics, Daehwi decided to cut Jinyoung some slack. Daehwi almost got lost in the song if not for when Jinyoung’s eyes subtly looked towards Daehwi as he sang.

“Just like the word ‘forever’, let’s stay together”

Daehwi felt a shiver run through his spine. It could have been Daehwi just imagining it, but he felt like Jinyoung looked at him as he sang it, and Daehwi felt like he could cry right then and there. He wanted to jump up and give Jinyoung a big hug and smother his face with kisses, but he suppressed himself. When they finished, Daehwi made sure to clap loudly for Jinyoung, making Jinyoung use his leg to nudge Daehwi as he moved to sit down.

Daehwi knew that he couldn’t outright hold hands with Jinyoung; Dongho and Seongwoo may be bigger, but they wouldn’t cover them up THAT much. He decided to link their pinky fingers together, like a promise to the song lyric, that they would stay together.

 

The day arrived, the day that would determine their futures, Daehwi felt sick to his stomach. He was nervous about getting in, he was nervous about his labelmates and friends getting in, he was most especially nervous about Jinyoung getting in. He remembered the night before when the older decided to reveal his anxieties to Daehwi.

_They were cuddling on Jinyoung’s bed, both of them feeling extremely tense about what was to come the next day. Daehwi held onto Jinyoung’s back, feeling just how tense he physically was; he tried to knead his back as best as he could to help the older relax, but because of their position, it didn’t really do much._

_Jinyoung suddenly sat up, shuffled toward the wall and curled into himself. “Daehwi, I’m scared…”_

_Daehwi looked up to see tears forming in Jinyoung’s eyes._

_“No Jinyoung don’t do that! You’ll make me cry, and I don’t want that to happen on our last night together in this dorm!” Daehwi realized that his words were more harmful than helpful when he saw the tears actually fall out of Jinyoung’s eyes._

_“I d-don’t want this to be our last night, I want to stay with you, a-and all of our friends here, I don’t want to go back to being a trainee, waiting for my debut, I don’t want to have to watch my friends again through a TV screen, I don’t want to not be able to spend time with you and to not see your smile in person,” Jinyoung curled into himself even more and hid his head on his knees._

_“Jinyoung, baby, calm down, it’s going to be okay. We’re both going to make it, believe in the national producers, and believe in yourself too! They’ve seen just how much you’ve grown, all of the mentors even praised you for that, and if they haven’t seen that now, they’ll see it tomorrow, when you’re center for ‘Hands on Me’ and make them change all of their thoughts in the last minute. And who cares if one of us doesn’t get in, we’ll still make it work right?? Separation makes the heart grow fonder right? We’ll just be so in love, you won’t even notice the separation.” Daehwi said, trying to be cute at the end and turning up the aegyo. His words came out quickly, but he realized that they were trying to reassure himself as well as Jinyoung._

_Jinyoung gave a laugh and looked up to peak at Daehwi. Jinyoung reached out to pinch Daehwi’s cheeks, making Daehwi give a pout. Even with swollen eyes and tear-streaked cheeks, Jinyoung looked beautiful to Daehwi. “We’ll be fine, right?”_

_Daehwi gave a vigorous nod. “Yes, we’re going to be just fine,” and he wrapped Jinyoung in a big hug. They both fell asleep more content than nervous._

Even though they fell asleep less nervous, that didn’t mean that Daehwi was less nervous now. Right now, the trainees were given a little time to spend with their parents, Daehwi was extremely thankful that his mom was able to fly all the way out to Korea to support him during the live show.

“Daehwi-ah, you’re so nervous, you haven’t even touched the food yet!” His mom chastised, pointing at the cream puff that was still untouched and currently deflating on his plate.

“I’m sorry Mommy, I’m just really really nervous,” he gave a pout, trying to calm his mom down from scolding him again.

His mother laughed, “Don’t pout at me, it might work on your fellow trainees, but it isn’t going to work on me.”

Daehwi shook his head and proceeded to eat his cream puff. His mom kept on ~~gossiping~~ talking about life back at home.

“Fran thought that she could hold a better party for the new family that moved in, but when I brought out my famous bugolgi casserole, the new family immediately invited me to come over for Easter instead of Fran.” And more stuff along those lines, Daehwi wasn’t really paying attention since he was used to tuning out his mom’s petty neighborhood mom drama. “So, how are you with the trainees, did you make any really good friends?”

The question was so out of left-field that Daehwi didn’t even know how to respond for a couple seconds. He cleared his throat, “I really like all of the trainees, we play well together! Do my friends from home watch the show??”

“Yeah, a lot of them already have favorites that they tell their relatives back in Korea to vote for. Areum, you remember her right? She actually came up to tell me to ask you if you could figure out of Bae Jinyoung was looking for a girlfriend. He looks very handsome on screen, I have to say. He looks even cuter in real life, when I came to visit you on that surprise segment, he looked very cute! He should eat my bugolgi casserole though, he’s very thin.”

Daehwi blushed, feeling awkward that Areum, and now his mom, were both fangirling about his boyfriend. His mom seemed to notice. “Daehwi, why are YOU blushing so hard?? Are you jealous? Don’t worry, you’ll always be number one in my heart!” She was making motions to copy Jihoon’s iconic aegyo, thankfully she didn’t follow through with it, Daehwi would have to throw the cream puff at her face.

He didn’t know if he should just reveal his relationship to his mom or not. He knew his mom was much more progressive, coming from America and all, so it shouldn’t be a big problem right?? He knew that she already was pretty lax about the idea of Daehwi not being straight, often joking about setting him up with cute boys in his old school, so it should be fine.

“I wasn’t blushing because I was jealous, mom, I was blushing because… you guys were… fangirlingaboutmyboyfriend!” He turned even more red and hid behind his hands.

“Wait what was that?” Daehwi could hear the grin on his mom’s face from behind his hands.

“Do I really have to repeat myself?” His voice was muffled.

He heard his mom laugh, “no I heard it clearly, my son is so cute, just like his mother.”

Daehwi put his hands down at that. “Don’t be ridiculous mom, I was the one who started the cuteness in this family.”

His mom glared at him for a couple seconds before relaxing. “Will I be able to meet this Bae Jinyoung who stole my adorable son’s heart during the live broadcast?”

Daehwi paused for a bit to think. Jinyoung shouldn’t be uncomfortable meeting his mom, afterall, she IS the most important woman in his life, if he was uncomfortable with meeting her, then Daehwi would have to reconsider their relationship. “I’ll introduce you to him before the actual broadcast starts, hopefully I can meet his parents too.”

His mom gave a proud nod. “Good, if you said you weren’t going to let me meet him I would’ve purposely not go tonight.”

Daehwi gasped, “First of all, how dare you think about missing this show, and second of all, how could I not introduce you to him??”

Daehwi’s mom gave a shrug, “I don’t know how you puberty-ridden boys are.”

“Mom we’re over 16 now we’re not that bad…”

“Whatever you say Daehwi-ah, now focus on spending time with your mother, it’s been months since I’ve last seen you!”

 

“Jinyoungie!!” Daehwi called out, running towards Jinyoung after they both got their makeup done.

Jinyoung pulled Daehwi into a brief hug. “How was spending time with your mom??”

“Fun! I couldn’t stop thinking about you though,” Daehwi added on, giving a cheesy wink.

Daehwi saw Jinyoung visibly stammer for a bit before gathering himself. “Don’t do things like that, especially before the show, otherwise I’ll be distracted during our live show.”

Daehwi laughed, and then cleared his throat. Time for serious business. “Hyung, I was wondering… if I could introduce you to my mom? I told her that we were dating, and she really wants to meet you…” Daehwi trailed off, feeling nervous. “Only if you’re okay with it, though!” He added quickly, just to try and get Jinyoung to agree.

Jinyoung let out a sigh of relief, which confused Daehwi. “I’m glad you told your mom about it today, because I actually told my parents about it today too, and they really wanted to meet you as well.”

Daehwi jumped up, surprised. He was grateful that they had the same level of mutual trust in their relationship. “What?? Well aren’t we lucky to have supportive parents!”

Jinyoung laughed. “Let’s meet your mom first??” He suggested.

Daehwi gave a nod and took the older’s hand to lead him to the family waiting area. He quickly spotted his mom, busy chatting away with some other parents, probably bragging about her cooking again. He tapped her arm to get her attention.

“Daehwi! You look so handsome in your makeup!!” She exclaimed, reaching up to pinch his cheeks. Daehwi moved back quickly, trying to prevent his mom from ruining the stylist’s hard work.

“Don’t mess up the makeup! Also, mommy, this is Bae Jinyoung,” Daehwi said, moving aside to reveal Jinyoung to his mom.

“Hi, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” Jinyoung said calmly, bowing down low. Daehwi bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from laughing at how formal Jinyoung was acting. Even though Daehwi stopped himself from laughing, he wasn’t able to stop his mom from doing so.

“You don’t need to act so formal with me, I’m just Daehwi’s mom, nothing too big,” She said, standing up to straighten Jinyoung out from his low bow.

“It feels pretty big to me, to meet Daehwi’s mother,” He said, still keeping the formal front, clearly a little nervous, from what Daehwi and his mom could tell.

“Jinyoung, it’s okay, my mom’s chill,” Daehwi murmured to him, rubbing Jinyoung’s hand to try and calm him down.

Daehwi’s mom gave a fond smile at the cute gesture between Daehwi and Jinyoung. She could tell that the two of them were very close and EXTREMELY adorable. Seeing how nervous Jinyoung was showed just how much he cared about being with Daehwi, so he got her seal of approval.

“It’s okay, Jinyoung-ah, hopefully you both can make it into the top 11, and even if you don’t, you’re always invited to my house for food!” She said, trying to lighten up the atmosphere.

Daehwi sputtered, “Mom, why do you always talk about your food??”

“Jinyoung’s so thin, he needs some more food! Daehwi you better make sure you feed him more when us, parents aren’t around!” That got both of them to laugh.

“I really appreciate it, I don’t know why, but no matter how much I eat, my face just stays like this.” Jinyoung said, trying to squish his cheeks to emphasize that there wasn’t much he could change.

Daehwi laughed, reaching up to pinch Jinyoung’s cheeks as well.

“Well, I need to leave early to go find Daehwi banners to support him in the audience, I’m expecting great things from the both of you during the live performance!”

Jinyoung pretended to stretch himself out as if he was getting ready for a fight. “I’ll be sure to make you proud.”

Daehwi’s mom gave a laugh before grabbing her things to get ready to leave and snag some free swag. She gave Daehwi a quick kiss on the cheek. “I approve. And also, no matter what happens, I’ll always love you, okay Daehwi-ah?”

Daehwi let out a sigh, thankful that his mom liked Jinyoung, and he gave a nod, “Thanks mommy, I’ll see you after the show.”

She went up to Jinyoung as well, “Everyone back at home are really big fans of you, so believe in yourself!”

“Thank you so much,” he replied, giving another unnecessary bow, making Daehwi and his mom laugh. Daehwi’s mom left, leaving Jinyoung and Daehwi alone.

“You were great, Jinyoung-ie!” Daehwi complimented, giving Jinyoung a pat on the back.

“I looked too nervous didn’t I, she probably thinks I’m not strong enough to properly take care of you or something… oh no oh no,” Jinyoung rambled, freaking out by himself.

Daehwi laughed, “Calm down!! She told me she liked you, it’s okay. I think she’s rooting more for you to make it into the top 11 than me at this point,” He pouted.

Jinyoung gasped. “She likes me?? Oh god bless.” He paused, processing what Daehwi just said. “How could your own mother root for me instead of you? Get your head out of the gutter.”

Daehwi giggled, latching onto Jinyoung’s arm. “Can I meet your parents now??”

Jinyoung gave a nod and started walking over to a different room; Daehwi only just realized that Jinyoung’s parents weren’t around in the same waiting room as his mom, but they were waiting in a different area that was more quiet. The dichotomy between their parents was similar to the differences between Daehwi and Jinyoung.

The meeting went fairly well. Daehwi made sure to turn up his aegyo to really get Jinyoung’s mom to love him (and it worked, of course). Jinyoung’s siblings seemed to already like Daehwi even before he met them just because of what they saw from the show, and it ended up being more like a show of watching Jinyoung bully (and get bullied by) his siblings. Daehwi never had siblings so watching them play together was fascinating. After everything was said and done, Jinyoung and Daehwi returned to the room with all the other trainees to prepare for their final stage.

The second the show began, Daehwi was hit by a whirlwind of actions and emotions. Performing _Nayana_ with all of the trainees one last time made Daehwi extremely emotional. Getting set for _Super Hot_ was extremely stressful, watching Jinyoung during _Hands on Me_ made Daehwi feel a whole bunch of other different emotions that he didn’t really want to get into at the moment. Watching videos of them preparing for _Always_ , meeting their parents, actually performing _Always_ all made Daehwi want to cry again. At the end of ALL OF THAT, came time for the actual ranking announcements.

Daehwi felt like he was hit by a train, his body was exhausted from the actual performances, to all of the emotions that he’s been feeling, to all of the stress from practicing catching up on him, and now he had to deal with the crushing anxiety of the final ranking announcements. Daehwi just prayed that Jinyoung got in, since he deserved it, along with Woojin or Youngmin, so that Brand New Music could have one trainee in “Wanna One” (Daehwi thought the name of the group was pretty cringey, but he could learn to love it if he or Jinyoung got into the group).

Daehwi held his breath as BoA started announcing who was 10th place, the first person to make it into Wanna One, the entire crowd was on the edge of their seat. Daehwi closed his eyes in fear, an instinct that he kept whenever he felt scared and kept praying in his head.

“C9 Entertainment’s Bae Jinyoung!!”

Daehwi opened his eyes in shock and immediately searched for Jinyoung’s face. He saw the older get attacked with hugs by ten other trainees. Daehwi felt tears well up in his eyes, so proud that Jinyoung was able to make it into the top 11, especially as the first trainee. Daehwi tried to reach Jinyoung but the older was too far away, which might be for the better because who knows what his emotions will make him do right on live TV. He watched as Jinyoung gave Daehwi a look as if to say he was going to wait for Daehwi to join him, even though he had no idea if he could or not. As he watched Jinyoung cross the bridge between the seats and the rest of the trainees, Daehwi couldn’t help but think about how far away Jinyoung was from him. Jinyoung was going to debut, and it would be with or without Daehwi, only National Producers could tell, and that made Daehwi nervous.

He heard Jinyoung’s speech, making Daehwi want to cry. Hearing how Jinyoung didn’t have faith and how he didn’t think National Producers saw just how he was doing made Daehwi feel all the more grateful that he was able to make it into the top 11.

They went back to going over rankings. Daehwi watched as Minhyun was able to join Jinyoung and felt grateful that a member of Nu’est was able to make the top 11. He saw Jisung join them after. Daehwi couldn’t help but let out a big sigh in relief that they were able to all make it into the top 11, especially since Jisung and Minhyun had taken care of Jinyoung and him throughout the show. The group would be in good hands with them together.

Daehwi was incredibly ecstatic when BoA called Woojin up for 6th place. A fellow trainee was able to be in Wanna One, President Rhymer wouldn’t kill them, bless.

The rankings kept going, and Daehwi felt more nervous. By the time they reached fourth place, Daehwi felt a little hopeless. Daehwi hadn’t been higher than fourth place for a while, so he didn’t have the highest hopes. Daehwi knew Jihoon and Daniel would be first and second place, there was no way he could be third place, it could only be Jonghyun… Daehwi began praying for 11th place.

“And third place…” BoA began. Daehwi hated how long they had to wait before knowing who actually received the rank. He could see BoA getting annoyed with it too, as she looked around the arena as she waited to announce who actually got third place.

Daehwi kept holding his breath, but through all of the occasional shouts from the fans, Daehwi heard someone go, “Daehwi-ah! Fighting, believe in yourself!!”

Daehwi looked around to find the owner of the voice and noticed that it was actually Jinyoung’s mom. He giggled, thankful that she was able to cheer him up in the midst of the crushing anxiety.

“And for 3rd place…” BoA started again. Daehwi felt himself holding his breath, taking Jinyoung’s mom’s words to heart. “is…” Daehwi felt like his heart was getting ready leap out of his chest. The pausing was really going kill him. “Brand New Music’s Lee Daehwi!!!!”

Daehwi’s first reaction was to fall, thank goodness he didn’t, but he felt his knees get weak. He couldn’t believe that he actually made it, he was going to be able to cross the long bridge to his journey to debut. He didn’t even know if he would be able to cross the bridge without falling off, he still couldn’t believe he made it. As he got to the other side, it felt like he was entering a new world, the view was so different. His knees kept wobbling, he was given a mic to speak, but he didn’t even know where to start. He kept rubbing his forehead, not knowing how to express how thankful he was to make it.

“Hi, I’m Brand New Music’s Lee Daehwi!” He hit himself mentally in the head as he took his time to bow, of course everyone would know that, BoA just said that, why did he do that. He went through his thanks, from his family to Rhymer to the Brand New Music staffs to the national producers to the other trainees who he wished he could debut with. He made a promise to everyone to show as much of himself as he could in Wanna One. BoA asked him to thank his mom and Daehwi felt tears begin to well up in his eyes. He wanted to make sure his mom knew that he could finally support himself, he would be forever thankful for her support, and how he would always work to make her proud. He made a mental note to thank Jinyoung’s mom for giving him encouragement.

Once he was allowed to go to his seat, Daehwi saw Jinyoung waiting for him with open arms. Daehwi couldn’t help but run into Jinyoung’s familiar arms. It would probably look a little weird on camera, but at this point, Daehwi didn’t care. He was so incredibly grateful that he could debut with Jinyoung. He held Jinyoung’s face in his hands, and it took all of his willpower to not lean in and give him a big kiss. They laughed together before Daehwi left to run up to his seat. He gave Woojin a big hug as well, thankful that both of them were able to debut and help Brand New Music out.

As he settled in his seat, Daehwi realized that this was truly what it meant to be happy. To be able to be in a group with all of his friends, to know that he was acknowledged and appreciated for all of his hard work, and to be able to stay with Jinyoung in the same group for a year and a half. Daehwi felt thankful that through all of his hardships, he was finally able to reach this point of his life, and hopefully it’ll keep getting higher after that.

 

**Epilogue**

Jinyoung and Daehwi miraculously chose the same room together with Sungwoon, who has come to terms with being called auntie by the two younger members. Daehwi and Jinyoung still cuddle as they did from Produce 101, and all of the other members act like they’ve seen entirely too much even though in reality, they enjoyed seeing the two happy.

During their first night sleeping in the new dorms, Jinyoung turned to Daehwi. Daehwi smiled, grateful to see the familiar view in a different setting.

Jinyoung opened his mouth, “Just like this without changing, I will love you with just one heart.”

Daehwi turned bright red at the sweet words, before he realized that the words were directly from _Always_. “Why do you always quote this song??”

“Because I hope I’ll be with you, always,” Jinyoung replied, pressing a kiss on Daehwi’s lips.

Daehwi smiled at Jinyoung. Even though they both knew about their time limit together in the same group, they both decided to make sure they enjoyed every second they had together.

“I hope I’ll always be with you, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR STICKING THROUGH THIS STORY  
> It's been a long time coming, but thank you so much for reading this. This is the first time I've completed something so big, so I'm really thankful for all of the comments and kudos you guys have given on this journey. I hope I did this final chapter justice, I'm heading into my finals week so I wanted to chug this out before I got swamped with studying (to any of yall who are gonna suffer for the next week or two, good luck to you!!)  
> I know right now the Jinhwi ain't as strong, but we gotta stick through it and hope that they work it out (Jisung gotta give them some counseling or something)  
> Be sure to follow me on tumblr: https://jhopesflower.tumblr.com/ where I post random kpop stuffs (you guys can also ask questions or request, they're v helpful for inspiration)  
> Thank you again for reading through, I hope you enjoyed this journey as much as I have! <3 :)


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